Hollow Victory and Valuable Defeat
by DreamWings231
Summary: Hajime Hinata would have never thought there was a dark side to Hope's Peak Academy. A new friendship with the daughter of the Kuzuryuu Clan reveals how blind and naive he is to give so much blind admiration to the school.
1. A Summer Day

Admiration has lead Hajime Hinata quite far to his destination. His first semester at Hope's Peak Academy was about to begin in a few weeks and all summer he has been waiting for the entrance ceremony. The more Hinata thought about Hope's Peak, the more it felt like a pyrrhic victory.

He made it to Hope's Peak Academy, well, that's a technicality. A letter in the mail confirmed that Hajime Hinata was a student in the Academy's Reserve Course, in other words, students with no talents can pay high student fees to be a part of the prestigious institute.

Dark comments from an anonymous audience echoed harsh doubts of Hinata's choices. Someone as talentless as him should just stay in normalcy and never desire more than what they're worth. A day walking around town seemed like a good way to clear his thoughts but he still felt chills biting the base of his skull. The bottle of orange juice he drank didn't help him feel better either.

Hinata swirled the juice around lazily not paying any mind to other people in the market area. That is until someone abruptly grabbed his bottle and chugged it down.

"Ugh!" The blonde girl gave the empty bottle a sour look. "I thought anything bad would taste decent after being chased but apparently I was wrong." She didn't give Hinata a second glance as she shoved the plastic bottle back to him and looked around the market. "I finally gave them the slip, about time."

"Um, excuse me, but what?" Hinata regretted his confused response once the girl's cold eyes and scowl freighted him so much that he backed into the building wall.

"Wow you're such a piece of garbage," she commented with a grin. "If taking your drink was that easy, I can easily imagine how quick it is to kill you." The chills Hinata had earlier dropped its temperature at the sight of how happy this short girl is at the thought of murder. This is not a good day.

She began laughing, "As hilarious your face is right now, it'll be no fun to kill you just because you're standing and being a waste of space."

For a lack of better words and stuck in a weird conversation, Hinata said with his best deadpan face, "Yes I cannot imagine why anyone would kill me for occupying a pocket of the cosmos."

"As long as you know your place," she was about to add probably another cynical comment when a loud commotion rang out down the block. Both teens saw at least three large men with snake tattoos coiling their arms yelling and pointing at them, shoving at the human traffic. "Oh great, they're back."

"Wait, those tattoos," Hinata thought out loud, looking at the scowling girl and the three thugs making their way towards them. Just as the girl was about to bolt down the north path, Hinata grabbed her arm and ran through the east path. "Come on, this way!"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" was among the other curses spilling out of her mouth as they zig zagged pass buildings and crowds of people. Hinata was sure that half an hour has passed while he made sure the thugs struggled their way through the lunch rush hour and the old lady who often threw apples at anyone from her husband's fruit stand when she was in a bad mood. Considering that she was loudly complaining about her son not calling back earlier in the day, Hinata knew that she was on the edge of throwing a pineapple.

"One last turn and we're home free." Hinata reassured as they rounded the corner and went to the end of an ally.

"We're at a dead end, dumbass." True enough, they were surrounded by three sides of cement buildings where dumpsters, trash, and rats called home.

Hinata began to push a heavy dumpster against a wall, "If that's all you see then you're the dumb one. Also a little help would be great."

"I'm the dumb one? I'm not the one who willingly ran away with the target of the Nero gang." Together they got the dumpster to the wall and Hinata helped her climb on. Hinata was able to reach a dusty window and used a snapped broomstick handle to wedge it open.

"True but this isn't Nero's territory and I'm willing to bet that his henchmen don't know the area." Climbing through the window, Hinata checked the fortunately dark and empty antique shop and held out his hand to the blonde girl, "You need a little help?"

"Maybe you aren't a complete waste of space." Once inside, they shut the window and heard the gangsters outside, blaming each other on losing the girl. Soon they left the ally and the teens knew they were in the clear. "Ha, they're so stupid. Serves Nero right for sending his lowest rank thugs to get me." She then jumped onto a lumpy floral designed cough and kicked the pillows away to make room for her feet.

It didn't appear that she was in any rush to leave so Hinata sat down on the other end. "Why does a gang leader like Nero want to get you?"

She shrugged, "I was just being my pretty little self." From what Hinata recalled from their first conversation, her answer was enough for him to take. The girl picked up a kicked pillow and threw it at Hinata's head. "You know, you might be a target for helping me back there. A normal person would just fall into the background while I'll be chased by some scary looking people. Instead you took action and had a good escape plan. I almost respect you for that."

The words 'a normal person' flashed into the brunet's head. She was right, he involved himself in a crazy event and his own strategy saved them. He chucked the pillow at her face. "Almost you say?"

She coughed out some dust and fluff from the pillow and set it on her lap. "A sneaky escape is only one trick any person can up off. You're gonna have to do more to gain my full attention."

"It kind of sounds like we're going to meet again, so in that case," he raised a hand at her and smiled. "I'm Hajime Hinata."

Accepting the handshake, she smiled too, "Nope!"

"Um, what do you mean by 'no'?"

The girl got up and made her way to the door, "I don't care if I see you again so it probably won't matter if I give you my real name or a random name. But since I do know your name, I might as well pay you back by making sure that Nero won't find and kill you." She opened the door, letting the light blind Hinata for a moment. "It's the least I can do, Hinata, but I think you're covered. After all, you look so average that any description of you would lead Nero to another normal sucker."

With that, she left Hinata in the closed antique shop, fearing that he may have gotten himself in on a gang leader's hit list. As any person who feared gangs and being targeted, Hinata laid low and made sure to check the area for any thugs on his rare outings. His fear finally decreased when one day he found a bottle of orange juice with a note in front of his house. All the note had to say was 'To a Somewhat Waste of Space, you doubt me, I feel a little bit offended.'

Taking a deep breath, a weight of fear was lifted off him. Now all he had to worry about was the entrance ceremony the very next day and prepare for his school year at Hope's Peak Academy.

* * *

 _Yeah I like Natsumi Kuzuryuu enough to write this and make her a main character. Thanks for reading!_


	2. The Possibilities

The Reserve Course was exactly what Hinata expected it to be. They were the normal students that look dull compared to the Main Course. Talentless, they hold no real purpose to the world unlike the Ultimate students, the ones who become beacons of hope to the world. And yet, he, an average, talentless person, was offered a decision to be a part of a project that will make him into hope.

Can one person truly become Ultimate Hope?

All Hinata has to do is tell the committee yes but Nanami's advice made him reconsider the option to decline. Talentless people like him have more freedom, she had said. The Ultimates can only focus on their individual talents but normal people have less restriction to follow different paths of life. While the gamer's words do make sense, Hinata still felt insignificant and small to the world, that his life will not impact anyone or anything. The Izuru Kamukura Project is offering him a chance to impact the world and become something better than anything that Hajime Hinata could be.

"I will now introduce a new transfer student." Hinata stopped staring at his hand and looked at his teacher standing next to a blonde girl.

"Hello, I am Natsumi Kuzuryuu." Her malice smile was definitely recognizable, "I don't know why I've been put with trash like you but, well, nice to meet you." The rest of the class looked uneasy at each other but Hinata let out a little, awkward laugh. Unfortunately since it there was an uncomfortable silence, everyone heard him. Kuzuryuu made eye contact with him and perhaps it was the embarrassment that made her glare seems less menacing. "Expect you," she pointed at Hinata and approached the empty seat next to him, "You're trash that might get recycled."

"Like a bottle?" Hinata couldn't help but add.

It was Kuzuryuu's turn to have a deadpan look as she took her seat. "Your attempt to be funny is pitiful."

The rest if the day went by without any more strange shenanigans. Or at least, nothing compared to the daily ruckus coming from the main campus. Then again, Hinata thought, he and the rest of the Reserve Course are nothing compared to the Main Course. And so he expected a normal day to end the same way it would end like the past two months, normal. But recently, he and Nanami have been hanging out.

At first, Nanami would wait for Hinata at the Reserve campus gates, pulling him to the arcade but now, they both had a silent agreement to wait for each other at the fountain and play Gala Omega. Instead it was Kuzuryuu that was pulling him out the school gates when class was dismissed.

She pulled him until they rounded the Reserve dormitories and checked the surrounding area. "So far, it doesn't seem like we were followed but I think we're good, for now."

For that moment, Hinata thought he was looking at a different person. Before, Kuzuryuu was an annoyed student in class who purposely shouted the wrong answers at the teacher's lesson. Now her right arm backed Hinata to the wall while she peeked at the flow of students entering the dormitory. With a face so cold and calculating, Hinata knew that her introduction was not a random name. She really is the daughter of the Kuzuryuu Clan.

"Alright Hinata, tell me everything. Has Nero or his gangsters made direct contact with you?"

Hinata bit back a whimper. He was hoping to never hear that name again. "No, you told me to stop doubting you right? So I believed that everything has cooled over. But from what you just said, you don't believe that."

Kuzuryuu held a lot of tension in her shoulders, standing straight and tightly gripped a pocket knife that was probably hidden on her person. "His cronies cornered me again but before I escaped they mentioned you. They knew your name, address, and your enrollment here. Almost as if they have resources here and I betting they do."

It felt like time was frozen for an instant, with the world becoming darker. His first thoughts of his and his family's safety came and left his mind. Occupying his thoughts were blinking red lights and a loud siren surrounding all the things he knows about the Izuru Kamukura Project, which isn't a lot. The committee chose him to be the subject, he remembered, believing it was through a process of elimination, but now there was another possibility.

"What are you thinking about? You look more scared then the first time I threatened your life," the girl said, poking his forehead with the butt of her knife.

"Kuzuryuu, I've been picked by the Academy's committee for a ground breaking project."

The gangster leader's daughter sighed and glared at the ground, "That's awfully suspicious and a committee no less? Nero must have planted people in the Academy from the very start, that bastard." She looked up and saw Hinata's clouded expression. "The project must have promised you something good, like what money?"

"I can have a talent and become an Ultimate, the greatest the academy ever had." Kuzuryuu's baffled face mimicked his own initial reaction. She even had the same longing hope in her eyes. "They gave me until the end of the month to think about the offer since I'm their first student they've picked."

"In other words, you'll be the first one to be experimented," Kuzuryuu concluded. "If you decided to go with the project and it succeeds, you'll be with the talented people but if Nero was really behind the committee picking you and you say no, he might do something to you."

Compared to the Kurzuryuu Clan, Nero was a powerful rival. The man took the name of a Roman leader and built his own kingdom from murderers, guns, and blood money. For the longest time, there were no news or broadcast on the Nero gang until information leaked that some military equipment and blueprints were in the crime syndicate's hands. Police officials dismissed any rumors or questions regarding the gang but blog sites theorize that there's a turf war between Nero and the Kurzuyuu Clan.

From the way Kuzuryuu has reacted to the kidnapping, it seems like Nero is making a power play.

"But you're not completely sure that Nero has people here." Hinata started to reason, to her or to himself, he wasn't sure. "If I say yes, I'll be an Ultimate, but if I say no then I'll just be the same normal person."

He stared at his hand once again, a new habit of his. Lost in thought of the choices he has right now. Nanami told him that he has freedom but with the coincidence of him publicly helping Kuzuryuu run from Nero's gang and later getting picked for the project, Hinata felt like he never had any freedom at all.

"This is my entire fault, I should have never taken your orange juice," Kuzuryuu complained. "Nero's taking his sweet time on getting you. What the hell is he planning?"

"You feel guilty?" He asked. "Are you concerned for me?"

Her frustrated face quickly changed into one of embarrassment, "This is strictly business, Hinata. Don't start thinking that I care about you. The rivalry has been going on for years and we always knew that Nero was planning something big and it might involve this project of yours." Kuzuryuu leaned against the wall, twirling her pocket knife between her fingers, "But if I was given the chance to be in the Main Course, I would take it." Clutching the knife, she decided, "Listen, Hinata, I'll going to continue investigating Nero's resources here. If you want to go through the project, go ahead, I'm not stopping you."

The information that she has presented to him somewhat contradicts her final statement. As she left him, Hinata remembered someone who did advise him to say no. Kazou Tegan told him to not fear normalcy and then there's Nanami, envying his freedom as a normal person.

Even with their words, Hinata still felt emptiness inside him. Ever since he learned about the Izuru Kamukura Project, he thought that maybe the void would be filled by being Ultimate Hope. After all, the world needs Ulitmates not an average person like himself.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading!_


	3. A New Twilight

The following week proceeded as usual with sessions being boring and Hinata still debated with whether or not he should say yes to the committee. Being at Hope's Peak Academy was what he wanted but he wasn't in the Main Course. He wasn't good at sports or academics or even luck. He was just Hajime Hinata and all he did know was that any Ultimate is considered elite to the world and they deserve that title.

"Well you look like you're wallowing in self-pity right now." Seated right next to him was Kuzuryuu. So far into her week, she has insisted that everyone in class is below her but Hinata supposed that she was at least tolerable. She was looking out for any gang members that targeted him ever since he helped her escape Nero's gangsters. "I'll bet that you have no friends. Not that I do, either."

"Well, yeah, not if that's how you say hello to people." Hinata shot back. "It's almost better than stealing a person's drink."

"How long are you going to drag that joke out? It's getting boring, like your face," she retorted.

If it's a battle of sass then Hajime Hinata has accepted, "I'll stop when you stop being egotistic and declaring you're better than everyone here."

"But it's true," she insisted, "I am the Ultimate Little Sister, after all."

That was something that caught Hinata off guard, "What the hell?"

Kuzuryuu smiled proudly as she began talking about her crime syndicate of a family. "With my clan being the best there is, my older brother is the Ultimate Yakuza and since he's so great it only makes sense that I'm the Ultimate Little Sister."

"Okay, that title seems like bullshit. Besides, you're in the Reserve Course, meaning that you were never scouted," Hinata stated but remembered something she said before. "You're looking for a way into the Main Course, aren't you?"

Determination was in her eyes as she looked passed him at the Main Course campus, "I haven't given up. You're tempted with the offer, I probably would be too. But with what we both know about a certain gang, I'm a bit suspicious." She lowered her voice, almost like she didn't want to risk saying Nero's name near their distracted classmates. Then Kuzuryuu gave Hinata a mischievous smile, "But hey, I bet if a Main Course student just up and quit, I'll be able to take their place." Hinata noticed her smile grow a bit wider when someone was approaching them. "Like a certain girl with freckles who I hate."

Immediately following that detailed comment, Sato from the front row slammed her palm against Hinata's desk. Like the rest of the class, Hinata was absorbed in the event because no one expected the lonely girl to pick a fight with the daughter of a gang. She and Kurzuryuu began bantering, referencing their old photography club and then it got intense. Sato's accusations and Kuzuryuu's insults got louder and so far no one stopped them until a Main Class student got between them and tried to consult Sato. Mahiru Koizumi, the class pieced together from their loud conversation, the Ultimate Photographer.

Hinata finally stood up to interfere when Kuzuryuu pinned false statements on Koizumi. "Kuzuryuu cut it out. You have nothing to gain from this."

Too caught up in her anger, she ignored him of course. When Sato mentioned her brother, Hinata saw a switch flipped. Her threat to kill Sato and insults on Koizumi was different from the time she was formulating theorizes on Nero. Kuzuryuu was seething with rage when Sato called her talentless and was ready to punch her.

Koizumi instantly shielded Sato and Hinata was in mid grab to stop Kuzuryuu. Everyone stared at them, the Ultimate trembling and protecting her friend and the girl from the crime world stopping herself. She continued to glare with pure hatred at Sato as Koizumi led their way out and Hinata lowered her arm.

Kuzuryuu wouldn't talk to him for the rest of the day, not that Hinata even tried much. He figured that she could handle any interrogation tactics so asking whether she was okay or not seemed pointless.

It was a relief to hang out with Nanami at the end of the day, even though Hinata was getting frustrated by his losing streak. But defeat was expected when playing against the Ultimate Gamer. A smaller voice in his head said that feeling like dirt was expected when with an elite.

Hinata was absolutely grateful to call Nanami a friend but sometimes he couldn't help but think that he doesn't deserve her time. Recently, she has been suggesting different co-op games and she was thinking about asking her classmates to join them to the local arcade. That idea was a bit overwhelming since he was never the most sociable person around.

"Hey Nanami," Hinata began, "what would you do if you didn't have a talent? Like if you lost every game you played and you see no possible way to win, do you think you'd still enjoy playing?"

"I think it would be fun in its own way. But I know what you're really thinking Hinata, well, I think," she didn't pause her game but he knew that her focus was on him. "You're sad that you don't have a talent but Hinata, there's more to life than just talent." Hinata snapped out of his depressing thoughts and looked over at her. "Miss Chisa told that to my class when we were all focused on being alone doing our talents. She was right, I'm having more fun playing mulit-player mode than solo. Your life won't be interesting just because you have a talent. By getting people involved, you'll make memories and hope, which is much more important than talent, will be born."

For the past week, Hinata felt despair at any mention of hope because then he'll start thinking about the Kamukura Project and the Nero gang. Kuzuryuu hasn't given him any new heads up with her investigation and overthinking the possibilities of a gang controlling the school made Hinata panic. There was also the promise of becoming the Ultimate Hope at the price of the operation but the way Nanami talked about hope made it sound so easy.

Gaining hope from friendship didn't occur to Hinata due to how lonely he has been. But now that he was friends with Nanami, he realized how he has enjoyed hanging out with her, even when she falls asleep in the middle of their conversations. "I see your point, Nanami."

"Hinata, do you like playing games with me?" This time, she faced him while her game played victory music. At his nod she smiled, "Then you've answered your question. Even if you win or lose, it's still fun playing with friends. Now let's play co-ops, Hinata."

Her words resonated with Hinata, that there's more to life than just talent. He just didn't think that he'll say those words to Kuzuryuu. Sato confronted Kuzuryuu again and this time Sato didn't hesitate to throw a punch but Hinata was lucky to stop her in time.

The best way to describe the relationship between Hinata and Kuzuryuu is through the words of coincidence and tolerance. Their first impression of each other was thinking that they're forced to deal with this annoyance but they give each other mutual benefits. Kuzuryuu brings the experience of dealing with the Nero gang and sass while Hinata brings information of the Kamukura Project and the ability to sass her back without feeling scared of her. The more time they spend together, the more they noticed their similarities and began to understand one another.

And so here Hinata was, comforting a gangster's daughter as she pouted at the ledge of the corridor path. "Kuzuryuu, you and I both know that your threats against Koizumi are pointless. I've seen how you act when you're dealing with the gang world but back there, you purposely provoke Sato out of spite."

"Shut the fuck up, Hinata, you don't know me at all. You're just a useless Reserve student like everyone else here."

Tired of her repetitive insults, he pointed out, "Well guess who else is here, you, Kuzuryuu. If you do something stupid to get into the Main Course, you might just get kicked out of the Reserve Course instead."

"I said shut up!" She repeated and tears began to form. "I'll definitely get into the Main Course, definitely." Echoing that last word, she rubbed away her tears, almost like she was ashamed to show vulnerability.

"This is about your brother, isn't?" Hinata remembered how hostile she acted when Sato mentioned the Ultimate Yakuza.

New tears formed as she stared at the Main Course building. "He's the Ultimate Yakuza, if I'm not the Ultimate Little Sister, I'll get left behind. At first, he wanted me to be the heir because he doubted himself. If I became heir and get accepted into the Main Course, he'll probably believe in his insecurities and we'll be separated by talent. I would never let that happen. This is the best case scenario, he's the older sibling, the heir, and the Ultimate while I'll do whatever I can to get there with him. I will never give up on us."

"I understand. It's lonely getting left behind and it feels like you're worthless," Hinata recalled a morning where he saw Nanami walking to the Main campus with her friends. She was too distracted by them to notice Hinata waving at her. Instantly dark thoughts harassed him for being talentless but he knew better thanks to Nanami's friendship. "But I think that there are things that are just as important as talent."

"Are you going to say something as stupid as the power of friendship?"

Hinata gave her a patient smile, "Close. You love your brother, right? Even if you have no talent, you can still make memories with him."

"Memories aren't good enough, Hinata!" Kuzuryuu's burst of anger subsided into sadness. "Talentless people shouldn't be around him. I want something to be proud of. I look up to him and I tell him that he's amazing when he thinks he's not but I'm not by his side. Instead I'm stuck here, recognized as a talentless girl who will get left behind."

Things clicked together in Hinata's head and he stood next to her, gazing at the Main building. "You may believe that but your brother doesn't. He thought of you as the Ultimate Yakuza and he's right, you're downright terrifying when planning strategies against Nero."

Kuzuryuu hummed, not impressed by his words. "I would love to tell you to shut up but you're complimenting me, so continue."

"Well I was going to say that the way you always help out your brother really does make you the Ultimate Little Sister," Hinata said sarcastically, "but I'm better off saying how much of a brat you can be."

She elbowed his arm with a grin, "Being a brat is a part of being a little sister."

"The point I'm trying to make is that this whole talent obsession is preventing you from having self-respect. If you idolize your brother you're consciously putting him on higher level but also end up thinking that you don't deserve him when you're actually both equal." As the words spilled out of his mouth, Hinata slowly processed the lecture he's saying. "With all this self-loathing you end up surprised when an Ultimate shows you kindness and treats you as an equal."

He felt himself clam up and his face go warm when he realized Kuzuryuu was staring at him. "Do you need a mirror to talk to?"

"Shut up," he stuttered. She continued to stare at him but then she spoke up.

"Hey, I've been saying that from the beginning but that didn't stop you," Kuzuryuu teased. "But I get what you're saying. I have to say, you surprise me Hinata. You didn't seem like the breaking and entering type of guy when I first met you and now I would have never expected you to psycho-analyze the both of us."

Hinata rubbed his sore arm, "Yeah, I guess I got carried away."

"You sure did," she agreed. "We both have problems with self-respect, don't we?"

He nodded, "Yeah. I should take my own advice, I'd probably feel better."

"Then does that mean you've decided, Hinata?" She had that business look again. "You wanted a talent but now you say that there's more to life than just talent."

Casting another glance at the Main building, Hinata said, "I suppose I have. I just hope that nothing goes wrong when I tell them no."

"Remember, it's not the committee we're worried about," Kuzuryuu glared down at the world below. "My gut is telling me that Nero has something here."

"I would have never thought that Hope's Peak has a dark side. I was probably blinded by my admiration," Hinata shared and gave her a playful smile. "But I'm sure we can do something about it with the power of friendship."

Hinata expected he'll get another bruise on his arm but instead Kuzuryuu asked quietly, "Are we friends?"

Her eyes were a bit red from the tears and she looked caught off guard by his answer. "Yeah, we're friends."

* * *

 _Alas, the beginning of their friendship and whatnot. Thanks for reading!_


	4. Free Time

Natsumi Kuzuryuu remembered the first time she heard the name Nero. It was the day after her family found out that Fuyuhiko and Peko Pekoyama had been kidnapped. Her father and his men were gathered in the heist room while she was outside the door eavesdropping. Some of the men inside suggested confronting Nero when no ransom letter arrived but their leader disagreed. Nero was described as a snake in tall grass, a hidden threat, and a puppet master behind the curtains but also has the best seat in the house.

Nero wasn't even the one who kidnapped her brother and Pekoyama. In fact he's the one who sent them the location on where to find them after they managed to escape. The letter he sent mocked her clan for even having their heir kidnapped.

The Kuzuryuu Clan has always been cautious about anything that's possibly Nero related. He hidden and recruited traitors of other clans, blackmailed and persuaded mercenaries to join him. His format seemed to be quality over quantity, Natsumi guessed. She was suspicious when it was inexperienced brutes that kidnapped her over the summer; they just acted like they kidnapped a random girl, not the daughter of a gangster.

They took her to an old building structure on the very edge of the market district and left her alone in a room with a window. It must be armature hour. Seriously, it took her at least twenty minutes to undo the ropes bounding her to the chair and climb out the window. Then during her escape she met Hinata and true to her word, Kuzuryuu sent one of her dad's men to protect Hinata.

But to be sure, she went back to her kidnapper's base, the first known location of Nero's henchmen. Sure, that sounds insane to a normal person but this is the best lead a Kuzuryuu has ever had, Natsumi wasn't going to waste it.

She expected to at least find some documents, maps, or at least a couch in the building but it was completely cleared out. In the room that she was tied up in was a landline phone on a purple clothed table.

The phone rang.

Natsumi ignored it and lifted up the cloth and saw a smoke bomb with a receiver blinking. Before she could grab and deactivate it, the bomb went off. Three of Nero's men stormed in with haze masks and grabbed her, restraining her movement as she coughed out the smoke. One crony went straight for the waiting phone and answered it, pressing it to Natsumi's ear.

"Did you really have to ruin a plot twist?" On the other side of the line, Natsumi heard a nasally guy with a foreign accent but what didn't makes sense was how young he sounded.

"You're not Nero," she gritted out, struggling more when the two people restraining her put more pressure in their grip. One male and one female, she noted.

"He's too busy to put time for a simple phone call. But hey, don't you want to talk to me? It was fun to put this ordeal in place, only to have you come back for the risk of new information."

Bait, she realized, it was probably planned to let her escape and return to infiltrate. "You're a piece of shit."

The guy mocked an offended gasp, "Such foul language from a young lady, Miss Natsumi, but I expected such a character from the Kuzuryuu family."

"European, that's your accent." The third guy holding the phone seems to put more weight on his left foot than his right, maybe it's wounded from a recent injury. Through the open window, Natsumi saw movement on a rooftop, up there has the perfect angle for a sniper to kill her.

"Awe, you're analyzing me. That is so cute. If it helps you can call me Apollo."

"Trust me, that does not help at all."

"Good, that's what I like to hear," Apollo cheered but then some background noise on his side caught their attention. "I'm in the middle of something here," he sighed. "Give me a minute Miss Natsumi."

He apparently pressed a button because now she was listening to loud waiting room music.

"God I hate this song," the guy holding the phone muttered.

The guy restraining Natsumi's left arm shrugged, "It's pretty catchy."

"Nah, I'm with him," the lady nodded her head to the phone guy.

"Agreed," Natsumi added, "Do you hear this song often?" All three gangsters groaned a yes, adding in more complaints. Preoccupied with their conversation, Natsumi saw the sniper get shot. It looks like her backup is here.

Most of the smoke has dispersed out the window but there should be some of it leaking under the door, leading a trail right to her. Apollo came back and without his upbeat attitude, "It appears that I was given false information. You aren't the Ultimate Yakuza, that is very disappointing, what a waste of time. Well, time to kill you, oh, and why not also that friend of yours."

The lady held Natsumi's right arm against her back with one hand and pulled out a gun to the blonde's head. Natsumi gulped down her fear, not of the gun but at what Apollo said next. "Hajime Hinata, I have his documents right in front of me. Hmm, he'll be an easy target, oh! He's attending the Reserve Course of Hope's Peak, how exciting! Just think how the school will react when poor, useless Hinata gets killed on campus."

It was only two and counting minutes since Natsumi saw the sniper die, she needed more time. "You're targeting a random, stupid guy? That's pretty harsh."

"I know you're stalling, quite a pathetic attempt too."

At the count of a hundred and seventy-nine seconds, a katana dove under the lady's gun arm, jerking the gun out of her grip, and smacked the lady's face. Right behind her was Peko using the sudden momentum to drag the henchman away from Natsumi.

Using her freed hand, Natsumi whipped out her pocket knife and stabbed the phone guy's right leg. The other man holding her arm wasn't a problem, a gun went off and the guy fell forward, blood leaking out of the bullet wound on the back of his head.

Phone guy lost his balance, dropping the phone and crying out in pain. While Peko finished off her target, Natsumi stabbed the phone guy again in his heart.

"Listen here you bastard." Natsumi smile when she heard her brother as she twisted the knife. "This trick of yours has failed. You underestimated my sister and now four of your men are dead."

Natsumi didn't catch what Apollo said, she was too busy wiping the blood off her knife but she did notice Fuyuhiko grip his gun tightly, almost shakenly.

After he hung up, the only thing he said to Natsumi was, "I'm glad you're alright." The three of them went back home in silence. If Fuyuhiko learned something from Apollo, he didn't share anything to her. Besides, she had a promise to withhold. A week ago she sent Hinata a note to not worry but now she knew that this Apollo guy has information on an innocent bystander.

Now fast-forward to about three months into the school year, where Hinata declined the offer of a life time but it could possibly be controlled by Nero. At least he's still alive but that doesn't stop her nerves from worrying that Apollo will kill them both.

It was lunch break and she and Hinata were at a fountain where she was introduced to Chiaki Nanami, another Ultimate. After Hinata had a revelation about his own problems, he has been insistent to help her out too by actually doing normal friendship stuff like playing video games.

"Hinata, attack that one! No, goddammit, you lost another life!"

"Will you stop yelling at me?" Hinata shouted back, furiously button mashing his game console. Kuzuryuu was practically butting heads with him to watch his screen where pixelated explosions went off. "At least I got father than you."

"Well I never played Gala Omega, so what did you expect? No!" She raged as the game over music played and Hinata just sighed and handed the Game Girl Advance to her. "Alright, it's my turn again."

On Hinata's left was Nanami, quiet but deadly, Natsumi decided, but in a video game kind of sense. She told her the basic instructions to play but that didn't help much since a minute in, Natsumi already lost two lives.

It's easy to tell that Nanami was the one Hinata was thinking about during his speech the other day, saying that there's more to life than just talent. As much as Natsumi would like to disagree, she wants that to be true. Just look at her life right now, her brother and his, um, closest companion are considered Ultimates while she's scared to be left behind.

Perhaps Hinata had similar thoughts about his friendship with Nanami. He did admit that he had dark passengers on his shoulders, just like Fuyuhiko and his insecurities, so Natsumi figured that he shouldn't be alone when fighting his demons. He seemed really happy for her to meet Nanami and she can understand why. Natsumi could already tell that Hinata was lonely and friendless when they first met so he must be eager to fill some cold, empty void, something that she relates to. But right now with him and Nanami, she had this giddy, warm feeling as she and Hinata bantered over the game.

"Go left, left!"

"Stop back seat driving, Hinata!" Button mashing seemed like the best plan right now, as she and Hinata yelled at each other while on the other side of the bench, Nanami was completely quiet and engaged. Game over music played on Hinata's console again. "No, I almost won!"

"That's obviously a lie, Kuzuryuu," Hinata said.

Nanami put down her console and smiled at Natsumi, "You did better than you're first attempt, that's really great!"

Getting a compliment over a game shouldn't make Natsumi feel flush but there she is, feeling a bit warm when the gamer praised and gleamed at her. "Um, yeah, thanks Nanami." Then she noticed that Hinata was smiling at her too. "Why the hell are you smiling too?"

He shrugged, "You look happy, that's all."

It felt kind of weird to have these two smiling at her, genuinely enjoying her company. The smiles she usually saw were fake ones, where the happiness doesn't reach a person's eyes. Fake smiles were better than cruel and smug ones that she often seen; the ones she often wore.

"That's really sappy, Hinata. By the way, I think lunch is almost over."

They parted ways with Nanami making them promise that they'll all go to the arcade after school. She wanted to find a game where all three of them can play. As much as Natsumi thinks that the title of Ultimate Gamer is silly, she had to admit, Nanami skills can probably relay into real life situations, well strategy wise. Overall, she's really nice. She gave Natsumi a spare sandwich.

It's nearly impossible to avoid Sato when entering the classroom; her desk is the closet one to the door after all, probably so she can find Koizumi right away. Natsumi could feel Sato glaring at her as she and Hinata took their seats.

Hinata assumed that she had nothing to gain from fighting and bullying Sato and if Natsumi was honest, she'd say he was right. She doesn't feel particularly guilty for being a bully back in middle school but she knows that her reasons will never be justified.

Koizumi was praised for her photography skills by their peers, mostly from Sato, and everyone knew that she'll eventually become the Ultimate Photographer. The redhead was just a normal person and she acted so modest about her talent, it felt unfair to Natsumi.

As the children of the Kuzuryuu leader, Natsumi and Fuyuhiko, along with Peko, were trained at an early age to be as good as the rest of the clan. They had to learn their way to survive with guns, knives, and swords but also go through rigorous training to beat someone through words and then cause bodily harm. It was mentally and physically exhausting but in the end the three of them felt stronger but still incomplete. Natsumi felt emptier when Fuyuhiko and Peko were accepted to Hope's Peak as the Ultimate Yakuza and the Ultimate Swordswoman.

She trained for so many years to be with her brother but right in front of her was a dainty, harmless girl being called an Ultimate. To make Natsumi feel worse, even she had to admit how talented Koizumi is with a camera. Anger and jealously got the best of her which had to be the shallowest reasons to bully Koizumi, Sato was just willing to be in the way.

So at Hinata's request, she backed off and ignored Sato's presence. That didn't mean that Sato backed off. This did not surprise Natsumi at all, Sato's aggrieve and protective behavior over Koizumi was reasonable but at times she seemed a bit obsessive. As usual Sato was glaring at Nastumi but after school things got weirder when she was on Natsumi's and Hinata's path to the arcade for a suspiciously long time.

"Hey, if you're stalking me, you're doing horrible job at it!"

Sato sneered at the blonde, "I'm walking in front of you; you're the ones following me!"

"Well I'm not constantly looking over my shoulder to glare at whatever behind me!"

"Settle down children," Hinata sighed. "But really, I think we're going to the same place." They've arrived at the arcade where they saw Nanami, Koizumi, and three other Main Course students were waiting.

Sato immediately took her place next to Koizumi, holding her hand and glaring at Natsumi. As for the redhead, she gave Natsumi and uneasy look. Nanami and the other Ultimates quickly caught on to the tension.

"So, I see that some of us already know each other," Nanami said and frowned, "This was a bad idea, I think."

"No, your idea is great," Natsumi reassured her and then faced Sato. "Look, I've been backing off from you all week so I'll have no problem ignoring the both of you."

Koizumi still looked uncomfortable but asked, "Is that true? Has she stopped bothering you?" Sato continue glaring, clenching Koizumi's hand but didn't respond.

Natsumi groaned at Sato's stubborn rage. "If it makes you feel better, I swear on the Kuzuryuu name that I, Natsumi Kuzuryuu will not bother you and Koizumi," she swore with her hand over her heart and added, "for today at least."

"Kuzuryuu," Hinata scolded.

"For two days." Natsumi decided and grinned playfully at her friend.

"Are you serious?" Hinata rolled his eyes, sighed, and gave Koizumi and Sato an awkward smile. "That's probably the best I can get out of her."

"Well if she promises then things will be okay, right Sato?" Koizumi relaxed herself and at the sight of her smile, Sato begrudgingly agreed but still looked unconvinced.

With that concluded, Nanami made everyone give introductions. The other Ultimates with them were Sonia Nevermind, Kazuichi Souda, and confusing enough to Natsumi, Peko Pekoyama. She would have never imagined the swordswoman doing anything other than being by Fuyuhiko's side or training but apparently Nanami convinced her to come. The gamer now has more of her respect than Hinata could ever have.

Speaking of the brunet, he seemed to be enjoying himself as he and the princess played some co-op games about spaceships. At first he was stiff and nervous around the Ultimates, well he was downright terrified by Peko, but with Sonia's excitement to play in an arcade her happiness radiated to Hinata and Souda, the fellow that seems to have an unrequired crush on her. Sato made sure that she and Koizumi were ever too close to Natsumi, not that the blonde even cared. What piqued Natsumi the most was the fact that Peko was here.

Currently Nanami was cheering on Peko on a zombie shooting game. So Natsumi stopped spectating Hinata and Sonia and wandered to Nanami's side.

"Hey Peko," she drawled out the swordswoman's first name when Peko shook her head a little and resumed her focus on the game, "Yama. Pekoyama is what I said, definitely." Nanami didn't show any acknowledgement of her slip up. "You don't seem to be the type of person to socialize in public places."

"Do you wish for me to leave?" She shot down another zombie, adding onto her killing streak.

Same old Peko, Natsumi mused. "I'm not in charge of you, do whatever you want. I'm just curious to why you're here."

Peko responded after shooting down three more zombies. "I am here because I want to spend time with my friends."

Nanami simply beamed at Peko, "Video games are fun with friends. Pekoyama, go that way; no the other way, there's more ammo there."

Friendship wasn't an answer that satisfied Natsumi. When Peko got attacked by a hoard of zombies and lost, Natsumi said, "Hey Nanami, I think that Souda guy needs help with the claw machine, you should totally snag a prize instead and give it to Hinata or Sonia. I'm gonna join Pekoyama," stepping up to the player two gun, she smirked at the swordswoman, "I think I'll score higher."

The gamer gladly took the bait to leave, following the noise of Souda's whines of how the machine is designed to fail and how he can definitely win Miss Sonia a toy. Peko started up the game and the two girls shot away.

"Miss Natsumi, why are you here?"

"Are you personally asking that question or is my brother concern for me?"

A mini boss zombie crashed into the screen and they both shot at its life points. "Young Master is always concern about you but he knows you can take care of yourself. It's just that you can be unpredictable, such as your companionship with Hinata, unless you want me to strike him down?"

"That's unnecessary, Peko, he's pretty harmless." In the screen's reflection, she saw Nanami win a little, pink rabbit plushie for Hinata. "One of Nero's men threatened his life just because he helped me out once. I don't want him to get hurt because of me." The swordswoman remained silent and focused on finishing off the mini boss, once it was defeated Natsumi spat out, "What is my compassion unpredictable too?"

"The opposite actually," was all she said.

It wasn't often when Natsumi would strike up a conversation with Peko and when she does, Peko just acts like her father's men, emotionless and ready to take orders. There was the exception when Peko's guarding Fuyuhiko where Natshumi spots the glimpse of a smile. Right now, she sees that same tiny smile on Peko's face as they shoot at another hoard of zombies.

"Your compassion is predictable too." It didn't sound like the best compliment but she saw Peko's smile grow a little. "So why are you here and what's with you stopping me from saying just Peko?"

"Before school started, Young Master ordered me to pretend that I have no relation to the Clan, that we're both normal students. Spending time with my classmates is a normal activity and also, I enjoy their company to some extent."

Natsumi smirked as she got a headshot bonus, "Ah, I get it. If he told you that then he probably wants to talk to you as a normal guy."

"What do you mean, Miss Natsumi?"

The screen showed the victory cut scene and displayed their high score. At the look of Peko's stoic face, Natsumi sighed, "You'll get it one day Peko. I'll just let Fuyuhiko do his plan until he begs for my help."

Although, Natsumi thought, she doesn't think that she would be any help in his plan. Emotions weren't well discussed or well-expressed among the Kuzuryuu Clan. But if her brother needs help romancing Peko, she'll gladly be there to make sure that things don't get any worse when Fuyuhiko and Peko mess up with their feelings. They were always together in their childhood and Natsumi can clearly see how well they fit together. At first she was frustrated at how strong their bond is yet they never confessed their feelings but then she thought if they get together, and hopefully they will, it'll be much easier for them to leave her behind.

And there she goes again, letting her thoughts spiral down to loneliness and sadness when she should be yelling encouragements to Nanami as she play against Souda at a melee game. She had Hinata and Peko at her sides behind Nanami while Koizumi and Sato were on Souda's side, far away from blonde. Sonia on the other hand was right next to Nanami, the side away from the engineer Natsumi must add, pressing her face against the gamer, amazed by her button mashing skills and the technology of gaming platforms.

Zoning out was Hinata's thing, not Natsumi's. She didn't dwell on dark thoughts other than murder and organized crimes. She certainly does not think about how inadequate she feels compared to Fuyuhiko and Peko. Sure their parents had no time to give affection to their children and when their father started teaching Fuyuhiko how to be the heir, Natsumi sure as hell didn't feel forgotten or uncherished. And when her amazing brother thinks he doesn't deserve to be the Ultimate Yakuza Natsumi told him how smart and skillful he is, all the words she would never describe as herself even when the person she loved the most said that she should take his place.

Fuyuhiko was just wrong and if he thinks that way then most certainly Peko thinks the same. Peko has complimented Natsumi's knife skills before but that doesn't match up with her swordsmanship. Also Peko now knows that Natsumi has been bullying her classmate, what happens next? Is she going to tell Fuyuhiko and they'll both look down on her for being petty and stupid?

"Hey," Hinata said quietly, nudging his arm against hers, "You're zoning out."

"No I'm not." She glared at Hinata to stop their conversation and he complied unhappily.

The rest of the day went by fast with more games and Souda getting rejected by Sonia a lot while Hinata seemed to get along with Koizumi. Nanami won a bunch of stuffed animals for all her friends, Natsumi got a red lion toy. They all parted when they reached the commons ground of the school where the Reserve and Main dormitories were in opposite directions. Sato just disappeared after she hugged Koizumi goodbye, she probably had her fill of tolerating Natsumi.

Hinata apparently had another idea because when they reached their floor of the dormitory, he nodded his head towards the small balcony area. The view from there faced the Main campus where one can easily see the contrast between the two buildings; one was built with pristine materials, large and luxurious outside decorations and the other building was just constructed to just be a building, yep nothing fancy.

"Is that a pool on their roof?" Natsumi spied and saw some beach balls being thrown up in the orange sunset. "We should sneak up there one day."

"Natsumi, you weren't making a lot of sarcastic comments around the time we left the arcade." Hinata derailed her topic. He even had the nerve to have some sadness in his eyes, like she needs sympathy. "You looked really down."

"Shut up Hinata, everyone frowns and no one has to smile all the time."

"So you were thinking about your brother." Damnit, it's only been a few weeks and Hinata can read her well. "You had the same look of your face back when we talked about him."

It was either proceeding or aborting this conversation and leaving was the easier route but she was Natsumi Kurzuryuu. Fuck the easy route.

"Why do we have some emotional talk by a railing with the academy in the distance?" Natsumi raised a finger to stop Hinata from making a sarcastic remark. "My brother is probably going to find out I bullied Koizumi and he's gonna be disappointed in me. Even though Fuyuhiko is a yakuza he a sucker for rules." She scoffed and failed her arms, "This one time we hijacked a supply run and I wanted to steal the car so it'll be easier to take the stuff back to base but no!" Natsumi exaggerated with a baffled, annoyed expression. "He said that I shouldn't drive because I don't have a license! He made us walk home after stealing the heavy crates! We are gangsters why are we obeying the law!"

She emphasized her last sentence slowly and loudly. All Hinata could say was, "So he's a lawful evil."

"The hell does that mean?"

"Um it's nothing too important. Anyway, the reason you initially bullied Koizumi is because you're jealous of her talent and then you thought that if you made her drop out, you'll take her place in your brother's class. In the long run, that plan is flawed."

Natsumi sighed and just sink down on her folded arms on the railing. "Yeah my plan was horrible. I'm horrible. What I did to Koizumi and Sato was cruel and I was monster to them. I was stupid, jealous, and angry all because I felt like I was going to lose Fuyuhiko by not following him to this school, by not having talented."

"But you don't need talent to be with your brother, you just need to talk," Hinata advised.

"We're not the best with emotions."

"I can tell but look at you now, you're talking to me at least and you have more friends too." She lifted her head up and saw him smile. "We both do and we have each other. You can trust me to be there for you."

Natsumi is familiar to loyalty. It's the most important thing about being in a clan. What Hinata is offering is much more than mere loyalty. It's friendship, comfort, equality, and emotionally engaging himself into her life. Perhaps its small compared to the bond between Fuyuhiko and Peko but it's enough for her.

"I think I can trust you, Hinata, and you can trust me too." She stood up straighter and still frowned. "But you know about the things I've done as a bully and you've seen how I am as a yakuza, why would you trust me?"

His reassuring smile grew, "The past can't be changed but it doesn't define your future. You can change and become a version of yourself that you're proud of."

Letting out a surprise laugh, Natsumi admitted, "You continue to impress me with your words. I guess you're right, I can change." She then frowned, "I should give Koizumi and Sato some decent apology; they deserve that."

"And talk to Kuzuryuu, your brother I mean."

"I'll talk to him too, just one emotional confrontation at a time Hinata, please I'm only human."

"A normal human being, just like me," he added and they both smiled at each other, "It's getting close to the nighttime restriction hours, we should go."

"Hey it was your idea to talk about feelings."

They walk silently together as they reached the main area where the corridor that splits up the boys' and girls' dorms. Before Hinata walked away he added, "Natsumi, I trust you because you look out for my since the beginning, you could have ignored me but you reassured me with your note and juice, so thanks."

"Hinata, quite being sappy," she playfully joked but then instantly frowned, her eyes grew wide, "Wait what did you say?"

Her sudden change of emotions scared Hinata and he knows only one thing that could do this to her. "You sent me a note and orange juice right?"

She nodded slowly and he saw her hands tremble, "The note yes but I never sent you orange juice."

Natsumi has seen and hear a lot of threating things in her life style but never has she thought that orange juice of all things would scare her.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading! Writing in Natsumi's perspective for the next few chapters have been fun._


	5. Remedy

The first thing Natsumi did the next morning was drag Hinata to the Main Campus. Well actually that's the second thing. The actual first thing she did was place her lion plushie sitting up on her bed. When she barged right into Hinata's room after picking the lock, she saw his rabbit toy on his desk. Hinata still looked spooked from their revelation last night. Chances are Hinata drank the orange juice thinking it was safe, but now Natsumi wants to take some extra measures to be sure.

Her intuition is telling her that Apollo is behind this. So far his tactics are to make his target lower their guard and surprise them; this matches a lot of previous encounters with Nero's men, meaning that Apollo has been with Nero since the beginning. There have been reports that the Nero gang poisons their targets and even though Hinata says he doesn't feel sick, Natsumi taking him to an old contact in the Main Course building.

Sneaking over the fence was the easy part; the hard part has to be the security. She may not be the Ultimate Hacker but she did her best to find out that about the faculty members and blueprints of the school. If the head of security, a mister Ultimate Boxer, finds them he will overpower them but with knowledge of the exits and entrances, Natsumi safely lead Hinata inside the academy.

By safely she means that there was an open window on the second floor and a tree branch has conveniently grown near it.

"Why are there so many missing dog posters around the school?" Hinata wondered as he helped Natsumi climb through the window. The wall right next to them practically had the Pomeranian posters as its new wallpaper.

"Ultimates are weird," Natsumi answered and lead Hinata down the hall. After a few wrong turns, going up and down the staircases, and almost getting caught by wandering staff members, eventually they reached a door labeled as the Chemistry Lab. The door easily slid open and there was only one student working on chemical mixtures. "Oi, Kimura, you should lock the door more often," the shout shocked the student out of her focus and she accidentally added too much of one chemical into a test tube. The chemical reaction was immediate and pink smoke went off.

"Ah, don't yell at me when I'm working!" She screamed and waved away the smoke then froze when she saw who she yelled at. "Miss Natsumi, I'm so sorry for yelling! I didn't know it was you."

"Eh, it's fine," Natsumi shrugged and began the introductions. "Hinata, this is Seiko Kimura the Ultimate Pharmacist, Kimura this is Hajime Hinata. Kimura, we're here for business. We need one Wonder Cure, well sort of."

Kimura set her experiment aside, corking the test tube and turning off the Bunsen burner. "I've told you it's called the Physician's Cure. Also what do you mean by sort of?"

"There's a possibility my orange juice was poisoned," Hinata tried to say without making the room feel awkward. He failed. Even though her mouth was masked, her eyebrows gave away her confusion as she squinted at them.

"He means," Natsumi glared at Hinata for his lack of professionalism, "the juice might have been poisoned by Nero. But since he drank it months ago, it probably wasn't poisonous but hopefully there wasn't any nanotechnology in the juice."

"That's your theory? I might have microbots in me?"

"Look how weird the world is with Ultimates! It's a legitimate possibility in this day and age."

"Miss Natsumi, Mister Hajime," Kimura meekly interrupted and flinched when the bantering friends looked at her, "I don't think the Physician's Cure would be necessary but I can whip up another chemical to clean up Mister Hajime's immune system."

Natsumi resume her composure and said calmly, "Alright, you're the Ultimate here. You know what you're doing."

The pharmacist explained that it won't take too long so Natsumi and Hinata sat on the couch as she cleaned up her station a bit and went to the back room to gather new supplies and chemicals. Once again, Seiko Kimura was in complete focus on her work.

Hinata had this confused look on his face so Natsumi decided to take pity on him. "Hinata, would you like a story." At his nod she began, "Okay so once upon a time there was a boring boy, he was so boring that everyone died, the end."

Frowning, Hinata stared blankly at her, "Once upon a time there was an annoying girl, she was so annoying that everyone died, and that's the sequel."

Their serious faces cracked and they both laughed at each other. Natsumi plopped back into the couch and got comfortable, "So the story of how Kimura is connected to the Kurzuryuu Clan begins about a year ago."

"A year and a half," Kimura corrected, adding a powder to a mixture.

"Yeah, anyway, Nero had set up a trap against us and in the end ten of my men were unknowingly poisoned and they collapsed right there in the base when giving out their reports. Our medical team didn't know what to do. The poison seemed incurable at that point until we got the idea of asking an Ultimate for help. So we kidnapped Kimura here. We told her the situation, paid her upfront, and she got to work."

"And she made the Wonder Cure?" Hinata asked.

"The Physician's Cure!" The one in question yelled.

Once again, Natsumi shrugged, "It's easier to say Wonder Cure, Kimura. You got to admit, it'll be easier to write Wonder Cure on the bottle rather than that long name."

"She's not wrong," Hinata agreed and Natsumi smiled with satisfaction.

The blonde expected another refute but Kimura said quietly, "I suppose it'll be easier to write Cure W."

Grinning, Natsumi turned to Hinata, "And so, she saved all ten people, the Clan kept her contact info, and now she lets me name the cure. The end."

Like Kimura said, the medicine was done in no time and she had Hinata drink it, no matter how much he gagged and complained. His breath now smells like rotten fruit, nothing can be done about it. Natsumi gave the Ultimate Pharmacist a thumbs up behind Hinata's back.

Now with that ordeal out of the way, there's still the looming threat of Apollo. From the research she did on the academy, Natsumi has no idea on how to find any of Nero's rats, there are so many scientists employed here and she's willing to bet that most of them have done something illegal in the name of their research.

And since she's here she'll be able to find more information on the Kamukura Project.

She and Hinata thanked Kimura for the medicine and she gave her a warning that the Nero gang might be in the school before leaving the lab. Hinata surprisingly accepted her plan of more trespassing, reminding her of the first day they met when he helped her out.

With the plan in motion, Natsumi checked the school map on her phone and led them to the computer lab or in other fancy words, the Data Processing Room. Fortunately it was empty but they didn't have all the time in the world. Kimura warned them that most Ultimates don't attend class so the possibility of getting caught is high. Hinata locked the entrance while Natsumi got to a computer and did her magic. The yakuza connected her phone to the computer and started the hacking program.

As she sat back and watched the progress bar load, Hinata pulled up a chair and sat beside her. "When you said hack the system I expected you to actually type in command codes."

"Oh please, all those hacker movie tropes are inaccurate. I got this hacking software off the black market." The progress bar reached one hundred percent and Natsumi typed in the search bar window for any reference to the Kamukura Project. New windows popped up with what looks to be theory papers, emails, and journal entries.

"Wait," Hinata pointed at an email between two scientists. "The Steering Committee, they're the ones who reached out to me for the project."

The email referenced the committee as the supervisors of the project and how they've been planning it for years, saying that the project is the dying wish of the academy's founder, Izuru Kamukura. The theory papers mentioned studies belonging to a teenager that's scouted to be the Ultimate Neurologist. Other attachments to the theories included schematics for brain scanners and other medical machinery that clearly means one thing.

"This is human experimentation," was the boy's breathless conclusion. A side glance confirmed his face was really pale. Natsumi had similar feelings, like after every stab wound she inflicts, she feels a little sick and her world becomes a bit darker with the blood that gets on her hands.

Natsumi took a deep breath and threw Hinata a smile, "Look at the bright side, you turned down this crazy thing and the journals say that they haven't started anything." With a quick look at the clock, she clicked on some documents to upload on her phone, "I believe we've spent enough time here, it'll take a while to copy and delete our traces."

Hinata regained some of his skin color and calmly asked, "Do you still think that Nero is behind this?"

"He has ties to this school, I know it. There's also this Apollo guy in the gang, he's the one who threatened you. At first I thought he just a clever prick but he might be smarter than I expected, but this?" She gestured her hand at the monitor and the sickening things written, "I was not prepared for anything like this. Gun fights and turf wars are no problems for me but I don't know what to do with this corrupted school, it's far darker than I imaged. Seriously, all thought was that Nero would be a chairman to the school, I find out his real identity, and kill him."

"That sounds almost too easier for you," he joked.

The monitor blinked that the transfer is complete, now it's cleaning up the history and terminating any trail connecting to Natsumi's phone. She's pretty sure that's how hacking works but she'll just let the hacking software do its work. "Yeah, well fuck the easy route."

Both of them remained quiet, watching the software slowly finish its work and then the door abruptly opened. They both froze and stared at the one who opened the locked door. Instantly they thought that a teacher entered but instead an albino student walked in.

"I guessed the override password, how lucky of me." The student smiled at them, not bothered by their shocked faces. He looked around the room and frowned, "But wrong room, I really do have bad luck."

How unlucky for them, Natsumi thought, they now have a witness. She nudged Hinata and hoped her raised eyebrows and little nod at the Ultimate gave him the message to distract the guy.

"Hi there," Hinata quickly got up and stood in front of the computer, blocking the albino's view of Natsumi's phone with the hacking software still in progress. "You weren't looking for the computer lab?"

"No, I looking for the chemistry lab but I forgot to ask for directions and I misplaced my handbook. So I thought that I just pick a random door but it appears I'm unlucky." Luck, it's like all the guy has to talk about. Natsumi never liked people who relied on luck, it was too unpredictable.

"And you open a locked door through luck," Hinata said slowly, stalling for time and making sure the conversation never lead to them and their purpose here. "You're the Ultimate Lucky Student, right?"

The guy smiled that too innocent smile, something about this guy felt off to Natsumi. "Yes, that's correct, I'm Nagito Komaeda. It still doesn't make a lot of sense to call me an Ultimate. After all I'm just worthless scum." He said it as if it's normal to insult yourself, still smiling and then he looked at them and his next words felt like ice. "Just like you two. You're both Reserve students, talentless people who are nothing compared to the Ultimates at this academy, the hopes of the world." His laugh held unnatural joy. "Isn't funny? How we worthless people are right here where the talented should be?" Komaeda stopped laughing and keep smiling at them, "Why are you two even here?"

Natsumi saw her phone display a thumb's up with the report that the software has been completed. She quickly unplugged the cord and said loudly to cover the noise, "We got lost too. It must be luck that you found us, we passed by the chemistry lab, we can lead you there."

The Ultimate Luck's smile remained creepy, "But why was the door locked?"

During Komaeda's little speech, Hinata had his shoulders tense up but now he forced himself to relax. "I must have done it on accident. I don't know how to close the door so I just pressed random buttons." His lie seemed good enough to be convincing, anyone would be confused by the high-tech keypad that controls the doors.

Komaeda accepted his answer, "Ah, well then, I guess I really am lucky. Please lead the way." Natsumi tucked her phone and cord into her pocket and they all exited the computer lab. When she got closer to the Ultimate he stared at her, practically analyzing her, "You wouldn't happen to be Kuzuryuu's sister, yes?" He didn't wait for a confirmation, he just laughed again excitedly. "What luck it is to meet you, Natsumi Kuzuryuu and you must be Hajime Hinata. Nanami talked about you two sometimes."

It didn't take long to walk Komaeda to the chemistry lab but before they left him to bother poor Kimura, Hinata just had to have the final word. "Hey Komaeda, you shouldn't say that kind of stuff about yourself and I doubt you really want to smile while saying all of that. You may feel like you shouldn't be with the Ulitmates but your life doesn't have to revolve around talent. Nanami told me that you all learned from Miss Chisa that there's more to life than just talent, that you should make memories with your classmates."

The Ultimate didn't seem affected by Hinata's words, he just smiled. "You're right Hinata. I do care a lot for my classmates." Komaeda went into the chemistry lab without another word.

"Hinata, I get that you want to make him feel better but something felt off with him," Natsumi said, leading him back to the window they entered from.

"Yeah, I just wanted him to stop putting himself down. No one should be smiling when they call themselves trash."

They climb out the window, then down the tree, and made their way back to the Reserve Course campus. Natsumi remembered when Hinata was counseling the both of them and their obsession with talent. If he didn't have that resolution about how unhealthy their obsession was and thought about self-respect then he might have accepted the Kamukura Project, he might have done anything to be in the Main Course. It was uncomfortably similar to how determined she was to bully and hurt Koizumi.

And then there's Nagito Komaeda, an Ultimate who gladly insults himself and praises the talented. He's another level of unhealthy obsession that she does not what to be involved with. Hinata on the other hand seems like he'll at least try to befriend Komaeda.

Once back to their side of the academy, Hinata decided to go back to class. He probably wanted something normal after reading all that the crazy stuff. She doesn't blame him, after all everyone needs a coping mechanism after processing something unimaginable. As for herself, she needed to go over the documents she copied.

In the privacy of her room and tossing the toy lion up and down, Natsumi reread the emails and notes. The science behind the technology didn't comprehend easily, it was too insane. A machine that would directly operate with the brain to download knowledge was out of their era. The scientists talked to each other as if this is a glorious achievement; to change a person no matter the cost into something they called the Ultimate Hope. What made Natsumi feel a bit queasy was the fact that these documents were dated back to almost a month ago.

Anything can happen within a month. The Steering Committee might have even done something to the academy by now and no one would ever know. Well there's was only one thing left to do, Natsumi thought as she sent a text message to her brother.

With a time and place set, hours passed and the Kuzuryuu siblings meet up at the bench by the fountain two hours before any of the classes were dismissed. She knows that Fuyuhiko isn't one to break rules but she's almost always gets him to make an exception for her, especially when she's serious.

"You didn't bring Peko?" She already scouted the area, it was completely empty but it doesn't hurt to look around again.

"It'll be suspicious if we're both absent at the end of class," Fuyuhiko surveyed the area with more subtly. "I don't want our classmates assuming anything."

"Assuming that you two are making out?" It was so easy to tease him. She was tempted to laugh at his red, blushing face but she settled for snickering. "I know about your plan, Fuyu, it's not terrible but it might take a long time."

His face cooled down a bit, redness still lingering on his cheeks as he quietly said, "Who cares if it'll take long. I will wait for her. She needs this, she deserves to feel normal." Selfless as always, Natsumi smiled at her blushing brother. He only gets like this when thinking about Peko. "Natsu, I know you didn't ask me to ditch class to talk about my love life. What's really going on?"

She handed him her phone, its screen displaying the illegal plans. "Ever since my friend Hinata got threated by Apollo, I suspected that Nero's men were in the academy. Then Hinata tells me that he got an invitation to become a test subject to this Kamukura Project. I hacked system and found these files detailing how it's all human experimentation."

If Fuyuhiko felt sick, he didn't show it, instead it looks like he has reached a conclusion, "This makes sense actually. All the teachers and faculty members here are scientists to some extent. Their job isn't to teach us, it's to observe us. I always thought it was strange how attendance wasn't mandatory or how our grads are based off the semester exams. In fact, our exam is coming up, they're testing to see if we're still worthy to be Ultimates, if we're still worthy to studied."

"So in the end, you're all lab rats while the Reserve students are unknowingly paying for the experiments." He handed back the phone and they both leaned back, staring at the clouds slowly traveling the sky. "This is all fucked up."

"Damn right."

It appears it's time to brainstorm. "If we exposed the project the academy will close down, the staff will get arrested but some of them might be protected by Nero."

"We got to do this quietly," his voice got soft again, like he's hesitating. "I don't think all the teachers are involved with the project, they could be innocent."

"You're thinking about your teacher, Miss Chisa."

"She genuinely is a caring teacher but she's also dangerous."

Natsumi poked his cheek, "And you love dangerous woman."

Fuyuhiko slapped her hand away, blushing once more, "Shut up, that's inappropriate!"

Her hands went back over her stomach, drumming her fingers, "What did Apollo tell you?"

For a while he stayed quiet but just like how he'll wait for Peko, she'll wait for him. "He was jealous of my title. All he did said was that I didn't deserve to be the Ultimate Yakuza; that I didn't deserve to be a Kuzuryuu. Then he had the nerve to threaten you and Peko. His threats didn't bother me too much but I had a feeling that he'll still try to get to you."

"Yep, he's been threatening Hinata to get to me. I can't let him get hurt because of me. He's just a normal guy caught up in a bad situation."

In her previsualize vision, she saw Fuyuhiko staring at her like she's a puzzle. "Peko told me about this Hinata fellow, you care about him."

"I guess."

"What do you fucking mean by that? Do you like him?" Even though Fuyuhiko said his words harshly, his face showed that he was concerned.

This time it was Natsumi who was quiet. "Hinata's my first friend. At first I just felt guilty that I put a target on his back but now he's been getting to know me and I'm starting to understand him too," it felt so easy to her to smile and think about Hinata.

Her smile instantly fell apart when she heard Fuyuhiko whisper, "I thought I was your first friend."

The siblings stared at each other, frozen, and Natsumi could see the hurt and betrayal in her brother's eyes. She didn't know what to say and her throat felt dry and her tongue weighted like lead. For years she has always put her brother on a pedestal, believing that he deserves the world and more. Not once did she think about Fuyuhiko's perspective. That he thought of her as his world. Now Fuyuhiko is heartbroken, all because Natsumi never considered him as a friend, as an equal. Because all her life she's been thinking lowly of herself and that she doesn't deserve her own brother.

"I always thought of you as the most amazing person in the world," she began. "You're the most important person in my life, Fuyuhiko. I just never thought about calling you a friend because I always believed that talentless people shouldn't be with you."

The sadness in his eyes shifted to confusion, "And you think that you're not talented? Natsumi, that's bullshit! I have told you so many times that you should be the Ultimate Yakuza. Not because I don't believe in myself but because I believe in you. If you think that some title separates us than you're wrong. Some stupid school shouldn't make you think that you're not an amazing person. You've helped me out so many times, either when we're pinned down or when I doubt my right of being the yakuza heir." Natsumi felt like she's mirroring his shock from before. Fuyuhiko grabbed her shoulders, "The title of Ultimate Yakuza or Ultimate Little Sister shouldn't matter to you. You are Natsumi Kuzuryuu and you are important to me, Peko, and the rest of the Clan." All his words struck her like a shotgun but then he's eyes went soft and he smiled, "Ya know, I always thought you were the strongest out of the two of us. You are better than me at practically everything."

"No," Natsumi took his hands off her and held his. "You shouldn't compliment me by insulting yourself. I've been doing that for such a long time because I never gave myself any praise and I never felt proud of myself. I never thought of myself as your friend because I always thought that you and Peko were on another level. You're right, the way I've been thinking has been wrong and I've been ruining myself in the process."

Natsumi's not sure who initiated it first but now they're hugging and her shoulder is getting damp while she's crying into his neck.

"I should have told you all of this before," Fuyuhiko's words were muffled. "You're fucking important to me, okay. I would gut anyone who insults you but I can't because it's you who's calling yourself crap."

She laughed against his skin, "I would do the same. And hey, you're telling me this now at least, before any shit happens."

Once their tears were dried they ended up talking about the past. Old memories like Fuyuhiko getting stuck in trees and stubbornly saying he wasn't stuck, the first time he tried to braid her hair, and Peko nursing their wounds after numerous training sessions. Most of the memories they remembered had each other in near death experiences but they talked about how they survived them, how they had hope because of each other.

To get away from the topic of gunfights, Fuyuhiko asked, "So Natsu how's the Reserve Course?"

"I hate it. It's basically like every other high school. Hinata's even making sure that I study for the upcoming exams since I barely do the homework." Nastumi propped her elbow on the bench and laid her head in her hand, "How's everything on your end?"

"Things could be better. Right now, everyone is nervous about our practical exams, we've been given a lot of expectations and pressure. Even though all of us are confident in their talents, we're still teenagers. The whole class is pretty worried that they'll get kicked out, especially after Miss Chisa told us stories of past Ulitmates failing the test."

"So Fuyu, what are you going to do for your exam as the Ultimate Yakuza?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, threatening the judges is all I got right now."

"You're kidding right?" She knows he's not. Now he's red in embarrassment. "That's a terrible idea, albeit a hilarious idea, but it'll look like a joke compared to whatever Peko has prepared."

"Well you're smart, what do you suggest?" When she snapped her fingers and had joy written all over her face, Fuyuhiko instantly shot her down. "And do not suggest anything illegal."

She pouted, "Fine. Okay a better idea would be a gunfight." Fuyuhiko raised an eyebrow. "A mock gunfight, like with paintball guns or whatever."

Fuyuhiko crossed his arms and smirked, "Alright, that's not a bad plan. I'm assuming that you're the one I'll be against?"

"It'll be too easy for you if you don't pick me."

Sure neither of them was an Ultimate in aiming and some teachers might not like the idea of a family member helping out but that's their problem. As a Kuzuryuu, family is a part of being a yakuza so nothing is in their way from getting paint gun equipment and other preparations. When Fuyuhiko told his teacher that Natsumi's a part of his exam, she was more than happy to convince the other faculty members to let them have their way. If Miss Chisa used a sword for persuasion, the siblings will never know.

Finally on the day of the exam, the 77th class and Natsumi were waiting in their classroom for their scheduled examination time. Currently, the 76th class is taking their exam and only the judges and handpicked spectators were allowed to watch.

So while she has the time, Natsumi gave Koizumi an apology. Just a simple apology where she admits that everything that she did to her and Sato was horrible, she was jealous and she'll leave them alone. Koizumi still looked uncomfortable, maybe doubtful, but she accepted the apology nonetheless.

As Fuyuhiko introduced Natsumi to the rest of his classmates, she saw Miss Chisa smiling proudly at them and she chirped, "See, this is how you spend your youth! Making friends and memories and hope," she paused and surveyed the room. "Wait, has anyone seen Komaeda?"

The class gave a unanimous no and then a loud boom rumbled the air. No one said anything. They all looked out the window and saw the gymnasium had exploded.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading!_


	6. Trust

The news reports were written just as Natsumi has expected it, except the fact that no one got any major injuries and died. Hope's Peak Academy's board of trustees and the Steering Committee have tried their best to prevent any major information on the bombing. From what Natsumi heard, they were able to delete or hide the recorded evidence of the main camera and took down any other videos of the explosion that has been posted. But that didn't stop the witnesses from blabbering their mouths off.

So to please the victims and the media, Sonosuke Izayoi, Ruruka Andou, and Seiko Kimura have been expelled. It infuriated Natsumi when she heard the news that Kimura got expelled when Fuyuhiko told her that the true bomb planter was Nagito Komaeda. There was no reports regarding the lucky student's suspension and all Natsumi had to think about this situation was that Kimura did not deserve this.

Seiko Kimura has helped out the Kuzuryuu Clan so it wasn't hard for her and Fuyuhiko to persuade their father to let Kimura join the Clan as their medic and Kimura gratefully accepted to continue her work to save people. And of course Fuyuhiko was the one to make sure that it was soda and not sake in Kimura's brotherhood cup.

The Ultimate Pharmacist's welcome into the Kuzuryuu Clan wasn't the only new development around Natsumi. Surprisingly the former Ultimate Housekeeper, Miss Chisa is now teaching in the Reserve Course. When she asked Fuyuhiko about this he explained that the teacher took responsibility for Komaeda's behavior and that the rest of the 77th class has been upset with her transfer. Apparently this means that their original teacher will be taking his job back but continues being hung over.

When she told all of this to Hinata, he just assumed that Miss Chisa must really care about Komaeda and recalled the time when she told him to believe in himself. His reasons to believe in Miss Chisa's compassion are valid but Natsumi can't understand why she would take some of Komaeda's consequences and end up here.

After all, practically the whole Reserve Course can see her displeasure of being around them. Her first day here had some excitement to her new class but at the lunch break her students came out of the classroom looking like they ran a triathlon. Whatever happened in there, the class never said, they were either too exhausted or too terrified to explain what they went through.

Hinata decided to visit Miss Chisa on her first day and Natsumi followed suit. Throughout the morning, loud crashes were heard from her classroom. Whether people heard human screams was debatable. So it appears that only Hinata and Natsumi were brave enough to enter the classroom when her students fled for lunch and safety.

With the title of Ultimate Housekeeper, Natsumi didn't feel threaten even though both Hinata and Fuyuhiko have seen her with a sword. Then they walked in her classroom and saw that the room was almost completely spotless. All the desks had a sparkling clean surface but its legs had cracks in the wooden frame. Majority of the lockers in the back had dents in them but it too had a shiny surface. Lastly, Natsumi and Hinata noticed that dust was falling from a huge crack in the cement ceiling.

Miss Chisa was currently sweeping the ceiling crumps and dust with a broom. Instead of her usual smile, she was frowning as she concentrated with her cleaning.

"Um, hello Miss Chisa," Hinata greeted and the teacher's attitude changed instantly, like she was genuinely happy to see two familiar students.

"Hinata, Kuzuryuu, oh it's so nice to see you two!" And then Miss Chisa started whining about how her class was filled with rotten oranges and they're wasting their youth or something along those lines. Natsumi wasn't paying much attention to her words, she was distracted by how fast the Ultimate was able to clean the room and it's only been seven minutes into the lunch break. Natsumi can't help but wonder how long it would take for Miss Chisa to clean up a murder. She should ask for tips later.

"I just can't believe what Komaeda did," Hinata said and Natsumi has no idea on how their conversation changed to that particular topic.

"Komaeda did what he thought would make his class happier, he cares about them," Miss Chisa trailed off.

"But he went to extreme measures," Natsumi added and remembered something she read in the news report. "Miss Chisa, can I ask you something about the bombing?"

The teacher swept up the pile of rumble into a pan and threw it in the trashcan that was almost overflowing with dirty rags and ceiling pieces, there was even a chair leg sticking out of it. "Sure Natsumi, but I wasn't a witness, I was with you and the others."

"But you must be the one who interrogated Komaeda, you were his teacher." The Ultimate's cheery face stilled but her eyes held a cold, serious focus. "The reports said that the bomb explosion had a unique and rare ingredient known as Greek Oil and I only know one gang in Japan that uses rare materials with stupid names."

She had already discussed her theory to Hinata and he instantly disbelieved her. Apparently one encounter with Komaeda gives Hinata the impression that the Ultimate Lucky Student isn't in cahoots with the Nero Gang. Well now they have Miss Chisa to prove who's wrong. "I see what you're implying Kuzuryuu and no, I've been taking notes on my," she paused and recomposed. "Former, that's right, my former students. Komaeda said that he found the bombs by luck and trust me he would never lie about his luck."

That's another lead that's shot down. Natsumi sighed, luck really is unpredictable. "Did he at least say where he got it?"

"Kuzuryuu, as a teacher, I don't think it's a good idea to tell students where dangerous objects might be."

Hinata blurted, "But you keep swords on your person, Miss Chisa. I saw you throw swords at Mitarai and then tie him up and drag him all the way back to the Main Campus."

"My first day as their teacher," Miss Chisa sighed in reminiscence but then frowned and looked at the empty seats, "And my first day teaching here."

"Hey Miss Chisa, you can still visit Fuyuhiko and the others." Natsumi reassured. It was weird to see the peppy adult frown. "It's not like it's the end of the world."

"I don't think I can, I'm working as a normal teacher so I need to prepare my courses for my new students," she sighed again, "even if they are rotten oranges."

"Oh right," Natsumi remembered. "The teachers in the Main Course are mostly just scientists, they don't really teach. The classes are mandatory for the teacher's convenience but I bet that Fuyuhiko would still attend class because he's too cool to ditch."

"Lawfully evil," Hinata said in agreement.

When Miss Chisa had that focused look back on her face, Natsumi knew she messed up. "You know, Kuzuryuu, most people your age wouldn't research that thoroughly into Hope's Peak."

"Well she's not like people our age," Hinata smiled like his explanation was decent and did not sound like horrible flirting. He tried at least.

Natsumi grabbed his arm in a death grip and glared at him, whether her face was flushed from his embarrassing words or it being a horrible cover up, she didn't care. "What Hinata meant was I researched the school because I really wanted to be an Ultimate but now I don't. Also we left our lunch in our lockers so we should go now."

They said their goodbyes but right before they left the door, Miss Chisa called out, "Kuzuryuu, before you leave, I liked to know how things are between you, Sato, and Koizumi."

"You already know I apologized and left Koizumi alone but for Sato, I haven't seen her in a while."

Hinata nodded, "Yeah she's not here today too."

After Koizumi accepted her apology, Natsumi thought that apologizing to Sato would be more difficult. The girl was always so protective of the Ultimate Photographer that sometimes she had a crazed, obsessive look on her face.

"I'll apologize to her when I see her," Natsumi assured the teacher. "Come on Hinata."

Now she understands why Fuyuhiko called Miss Chisa dangerous. Her skills can easily overpower people and leave no trace. Maybe she'll grow up to be like the teacher, just without that cheery attitude.

When she and Hinata returned to their classroom and began eating their lunch, Hinata said, "I told you Komaeda's not involved." He even pointed his small loaf of bread at her.

"That's not the important part," she dismissed, totally avoiding the part where she tells him he was right and she was wrong. "Now we find out where he got the stuff."

Finding out that the explosives in the gym were Greek Oil bombs was the biggest connection between Nero and the academy. Maybe they were lucky that Komaeda found their supplies to prove that Nero has people here. Or maybe life is just filled with bullshit because now she has to find out Komaeda's trail to ask him but she can't since he dropped off the radar the day he got suspended.

It took a week later for Natsumi to find out that Komaeda found the bombs at the loading bay of the science building. When Hinata asked how she found out, she said that she's brilliant. She will never tell him that during her week, some bum claiming to be a fortune teller with thirty percent accuracy predicted her future when he was begging for mercy.

Since she had no other leads, she took his word and spied on the science building and saw that some of the people there had snake tattoos. Natsumi threatened the fortune teller one last time to pay up his debt by the end of the month and told her men to reduce the debt by a thousand. It was only fair.

With a location and plan in mind, it was time to get supplies so after class was Natsumi checked the weapon inventory in her room. All she had was throwing knives, a lock pick, a silencer gun, and her trusty pocket knife, a birthday gift from Fuyuhiko. She knew that her equipment wasn't enough though and this was going to be a stealth and infiltration mission so she didn't trust herself with bringing a gun if there's civilian scientist in the building. She wouldn't put it pass Nero's morals to have innocent people in harm's way.

Only one place to go then, she decided and sent a text to one of her men to pick her up. Right after she exited her room and locked the door a hand grabbed her shoulder. Her reflexes kicked in and in a matter of seconds she had Hinata pinned to the door with her pocket knife pressing against his throat.

She saw his initial shock go away and he smiled, "You know, I should have expected this."

Natsumi retracted her knife and backed off, "I'm a yakuza, Hinata. I'm always prepared for danger."

"Don't try to be cool with me, Kuzuryuu. I've seen you drool in class."

She just scowled at him and went to the staircase, "Whatever Hinata, I got to go somewhere."

"You're going to the science facility tonight and you're preparing to go there alone," he said as he walked besides her.

"Hinata, you're not going to stop me and you're not going to come with me." Before he protested she pointed out, "You are not a killer Hinata and I want to make sure that if you ever kill anything it'll be a bug or whatever. I don't care if you smart or my friend, I want you alive."

He got in front of her on a lower stair, making their eye contact practically equal. "Well what do you think I want? I want you alive too, Kuzuryuu, and if that means getting into life or death situations then I'll willingly take the risk."

Natsumi recalled the few times where Hinata said that she had two faces, one sassy and vibrant and one serious and calculating. Now she sees the different faces that Hinata has, his usual concerned and kind faces are the ones she used too. The determined fire in his eyes as the sun begins to set makes Hinata look completely different and confident in himself, like he believes he'll always be there for her.

"Alright Hinata, we'll do this together," she walked passed him and he followed. "I trust you Hinata but you have to be honest with me. How good is your aim?"

"I'm not a natural but I'm decent." Hinata admitted and then they exited the dormitory and approached the main road that surrounds the campus where a black car and a man in a suit were waiting. "Are you really planning on giving me a gun?"

"Not exactly, we need something else." Natsumi nodded her head at the man by the car and he opened the door for them. Once inside the car he closed the door and took the driver's seat. "Take us to Kimura's lab, Jorge."

On the way there, Natsumi explained to Hinata the plan when they infiltrate the building and occasionally asking their driver, Jorge, how his kids were doing. Finally they reached the Kuzuryuu Clan's main medical base. It was a small apartment like building in the downtown district but the medical team said it was enough for them. Kimura got the whole top floor for herself and her experiments, probably to have complete focus and concentration.

Naturally Natsumi swung the door loudly and yelled, "Kimura, your chemicals are going to save the day once again!"

Instead of an expected scream, Kimura was calmly sitting at her chemistry table, "Miss Natsumi, Mister Hinata, it's nice to see you again." The two students assumed she was smiling behind her mask from her happy tone. "I got a heads up. So what do you need?"

"Two tranquilizer cartages," Hinata requested. "Also you don't need to call me that, Hinata's just find."

"Eh, I still like being called Miss Natsumi," the blonde shrugged.

For the next hour the two of them got their equipment ready. Both had a downloaded map of the science building on their phones, gloves to not leave fingerprints, a utility belt that had gun holsters, a small pouch of smoke bombs, another pouch of sleeping gas bomb, and now Kimura was putting the finishing touches on her tranquilizer formula. The pharmacist also gave them their own respirator masks similar to hers if they have to use the smoke bombs.

As Natsumi was cleaning her pocket knife her phone rang. It was her brother. "Hey Fuyu, what's up?"

"Don't you use nick names with me, Natsumi!" He yelled, "Jorge texted me that you're planning on a mission!"

"God dammit Jorge," Natsumi groaned. "Don't worry Fuyuhiko, I'll be fine, I have Hinata as my partner."

"Wait," Fuyuhiko was silent for a bit but then he screamed, "Are you two going on a heist or a date?"

His accusation was loud enough for Hinata and Kimura to hear. Kimura giggled while Hinata palmed his forehead. She didn't see his face but Natsumi's willing to bet that he feels like his life is in more danger now.

"I don't know, I'll tell you the answer when we're done," and she ended the call and turned her attention to Kimura. "So are the darts ready?"

Kimura handed them each two cases of her tranquilizer bullets for their belts, explaining that her formula should knock the target out for a maximum of three or four hours. With everything ready, Natsumi and Hinata left the lab as Kimura told them to be careful.

Jorge drove them back to the academy and before he left he gave them bulletproof vests and set his hands on their shoulders, "Look out for each other," he looked at Hinata, "take deep breaths and calm down before pulling the trigger," then to Natsumi, "do not go overboard. I want you both alive by tomorrow." The man went back to into his car and before he drove off he yelled, "Have fun on your date!"

"Are all your clan members like this?" Hinata asked.

"Nah, just a few," Natsumi lead Hinata to the path she went on the first time she spied on the science building. "Actually, it was Jorge who I sent to watch over you before I got here. Did he prank you by any chance?" At his unsure frown she muttered, "Well now it's only a matter of time."

The giant campus of Hope's Peak Academy is mostly separated by its own forest so the science building is surrounded by trees and bushes where the two students lurked in as the moon began to ascend. Like before there were men at the loading bay, transferring large wooden crates into the garage unit. There was a scientist taking inventory with a clipboard directing the workmen. Upon closer expectation, as in they used the zoom of their camera app; the workmen had snake tattoos on their arms and necks.

"Some of them are wearing dog tags," Hinata noted, "How often do soldiers join gangs?"

"Often, some of them are mercenaries but they stayed loyal to Nero," Natsumi watched as the last crate was unloaded, "It's almost time to move in, Hinata, now's your last chance to back out."

He took her hand with that serious face of his, "I am not leaving you, Kuzuryuu."

"Aright then, also don't hold my hand." Natsumi sneaked to one side of the truck and underneath it with Hinata in tow. The scientist did one last sweep of the crates while the gangsters went back to the front of the truck to drive off. The engine was then reeved and the garage rumbled to a close. That's when Natsumi and Hinata dashed out and under the closing garage door. They heard the truck drive away and fortunately the scientist already left the garage.

Hinata pulled up the map on his phone, "It's just a straight hallway up ahead. Also it's really weird that there are no security cameras on this floor when you think about it."

"They probably don't want to risk the chance that any Ultimate with computer skills might hack them but there has to be some cameras around here," Natsumi said, double checking her tranquilizer gun. "Chances are we're not the first people to suspect the academy of doing unspeakable things."

Down the hallway they went, as quietly as they could. The first floor were mostly laboratories or storage rooms so they headed upstairs to the scientists' private offices in hopes of logging into a vacate computer. Like the academy, all the offices had a keypad and a card reader. Natsumi wasn't impressed. She was kind of expecting a retina scanner somewhere in this place.

The moment they heard footsteps the duo side stepped into an adjacent hallway. Two scientists were talking about replacing chemicals in their experiment and they were coming closer. She was about to move to shot them before they were spotted but Hinata held her back, moving them away from hallway's intersection. The scientists were too caught up in their conversation to notice the students in their peripheral vision and they stopped in front of an office door.

Hinata took Jorge's advice and took a deep breath before aiming his tranquilizer gun at one of the scientist. She followed his lead and shot the neck at the one who pulled out a keycard while Hinata's dart hit the other one's back. Leave it to Kimura to make tranquilizer darts that work in seconds because the two scientists collapsed. Natsumi quickly got the keycard and swiped the door opened and then she helped Hinata drag the unconscious adults inside. They left the bodies in the office's corner and Natsumi plugged her phone to the computer.

Once again they were staring at a progress bar.

"Kuzuryuu, I get that we're here to get more files but I still don't understand why Komaeda would find bombs in the science building of all places," Hinata pondered.

The hacking program began its process of finding and downloading experiment reports as Natsumi clicked on one to read. "Remember what Miss Chisa said? It was all because of his luck. There could be a better explanation but we don't have any evidence right now so we need to focus on what we do know is happening here. There has to be emails or direct mention to Nero, Apollo, or the bastard in charge of this project." She clicked on another file and her stomach dropped, "Oh no, they've already started the experiments."

The file she picked were daily reports of the test subjects. Apparently Hinata wasn't the only Reserve Course student to be offered the Kamukura Project. It dates back to the month when Hinata declined the offer while other students in his situation accepted. All the test subjects had the same criteria, unable to fully pay the student fees and they held great admiration to either the Academy or Ultimates. So far the scientists have administrated chemicals into the blood vessels but recently they've started production on phase two.

Phase one was summed up to be a cleansing process, the subjects went through brain surgeries to wipe away their personality to become a blank slate while phase two focused on filling their brain with artificial talent. It's recorded that the test subjects, volunteers no less, are currently confined in the high tech pods from the blueprints Natsumi downloaded before.

"They've been in the pods for nearly two months!" Hinata exclaimed.

"Ten students from our school actually volunteered for this," Natsumi said, "and you could have been the eleventh one. What kind of sick persuasion did the scientist do to convince them that this was a good idea?"

"We got to do something, Kuzuryuu. This file says that they're in the basement level of the building."

Natsumi scrolled through more files, "And how do you think we'll do that Hinata? Drag all ten students out the building without getting caught? We don't have the right equipment or muscle to save them all."

"Well we can try to sabotage their research or delay their progress," Hinata suggested in a desperate tone. "Or write random numbers on their chalkboard."

Leaning away from the computer, Natsumi took a deep breath and then slapped her hands on Hinata's cheeks and shook his head, crinkling his mask. "That is stupid!" She ceased her shaking but kept her hands in place. "Breath and calm down Hinata. The students are attached to complicated machinery that messes with their brains and if the scientists miscalculate they might hurt the students or try a different, more risky alternative to further their experiments."

He composed himself but Natsumi knew that he was still freaking out. He wanted to save people but if he's reckless or under stress he might not make the best course of actions. That's why Natsumi's taking lead of the mission. "Okay, you're right Kuzuryuu."

"Now that that's settled," her hands returned to the keyboard and mouse, "we may not be able to save them right now but exposing the experiments might be the best next thing."

She popped up a new window to display camera feeds of the test subjects, all focused on the pods they're in. All viewports looked the same with the subjects motionless behind the tinted windows of their pods but then the feed switched to one subject in the phase one machines.

"Wait is that Sato?" Natsumi zoomed in to the unconscious girl sitting in a chair that plugged needles in her arms and some helmet to operate on her brain.

"She hasn't been to class for days and Koizumi said that she hasn't been able to contact her," Hinata said.

"You talk to Koizumi?" She regained her focus, "Never mind, of course you'll make friends with everyone. Okay so she's been missing from class recently so she's still in phase one while the rest are in the second phase but if they get out they might not be the same."

He pointed to the scientist moving out of frame, "Can you unmute it? They might explain some stuff about this."

Natsumi clicked on the audio button and sure enough the teenagers did not understand the science gibberish that was going on. Hinata had his confused puppy face but Natsumi was distracted by the other thing the audio picked up, music.

"You got to be fucking kidding me," Natsumi groaned and then switched the camera feed of the other test subjects only to hear the familiar song continue. "Apollo is overseeing the experiments."

When she muted the audio, Hinata asked, "What, is this his theme song?"

"It's his waiting room music."

There was a pause and then Hinata said, "This Apollo guy must have a lot of free time on his hands."

She rubbed her temples, formulating a plan, "Okay so there's a possibility that he's here and along with more of Nero's men. We got about," she checked her phone, "fourteen files of this experiment."

"You should send those to one of your men," Hinata suggested.

"Good call." Natsumi tapped her phone and sent the files to Jorge and then she lowered her mask and hooked an arm around Hinata's neck to take a selfie with him. The picture of Hinata looking surprised and awkward and of her sticking her tongue out was sent along with the files. Natsumi set her mask back on and said, "Alright let's get out of here."

The hacking program erased their tracks and they left the office where the knocked out scientists inside would probably wake up feeling like they're hung over. Taking the same path as their escape route wasn't as easy as the duo would hope it would be. It was easy to avoid the scientists by taking alternative routes but the guards were a different problem.

Before Natsumi believed that Nero's men were just in charge supply shipments but now there's gangsters with snake tattoos guarding some laboratories on the first floor. She shared a worried look with Hinata, both of them feeling uneasy as they round another hallway only to see more gangsters standing guard. With this many gangsters around Natsumi suspected that there's no camera's built in so that the scientists won't get caught working with Nero.

They've already seen at least ten gangsters on the first floor alone and Natsumi knows from experience how skilled most of them are. The cold feeling in her gut is making her even more worried since she allowed Hinata to join her. She can't risk a guns blazing escape.

She held up a sleep bomb and Hinata nodded at her wordless plan. Hinata held up his gun readily and Natsumi pulled back her arm then threw the bomb at the gangsters' feet. It released the gas on impact and the gangsters quickly used their shirts to cover their mouths. Right when they spotted the teenagers Hinata shot the arm of one gangster while the other one pulled out his coms. Immediately the alarms went off and the lights flashed red. Well now Natsumi's going to risk a guns blazing escape but with more smoke bombs.

She smashed another smoke bomb as Hinata shot the injured gangster's leg and thankfully the sleep gas and the darts got to him. The other one pulled out his gun and chased them down. The two of them ran down the hallways, barely hearing more guards shooting at them as the alarm system continued blaring. Her smoke bombs impaled their shooters' vision because so far bullets only grazed her left arm. Hinata also had some cries of pain as they focused on running. Up ahead Natsumi saw an open door and at the end of the hall were more gangsters running their way.

It's becoming more obvious to her that this mission won't end well but as long as she keeps Hinata safe she'll be satisfied. That's why she shoved Hinata behind her as the guards drew their guns and shot at them. This wasn't the first time she's ever been shot, the pain in her right shoulder is familiar but still she can't help but bite her lip to stop screaming in agony. Thankfully she has experience to build up her pain tolerance and she managed to drag Hinata through the open door as he threw a sleep bomb before she slammed the door close.

They were in another lab and Hinata just shot the three scientists inside. His aim wasn't bad but it could be improved if she ever taught him.

"Hinata, are you okay?" Natsumi said shakenly, applying pressure on her bullet wound and its exit wound.

"You can't be seriously asking me that," Hinata grabbed the band aid wrap from his utility belt and mended her shoulder.

"Stop, I can do this myself Hinata," she took the wrap and did a shooing motion, "Go barricade the door."

As Hinata started pushing chairs and chemical cabinets in front of the door Natsumi tried to think up a plan. The vents were too small for either of them to crawl in, there want's any other room attached to the lab, and since the panic alarm is going off all the computers have its monitors displaying the message that they're in lock down mode.

When she checked her phone it read that there's no signal available and when she tried to send an emergency signal to her men it failed, meaning there was a signal jammer going off, in fact the Wi-Fi was down too. Well at least she already sent the files to Jorge. Still, she had Hinata once again in harm's way. The door was getting banged and pounded on from the other side as Hinata pushed another shelf in with the other furniture that's their last hope of survival. She then noticed both his arms have bullet grazes. It must be either a miracle or Komaeda's bullshit luck that the both of them are still alive by now considering they're wearing bulletproof vests that Jorge had in the trunk.

One of the unspoken rules of Clan is to be suspicious of anything Jorge gives to people, even if it is a life or death situation.

"Kuzuryuu, are you okay?" Hinata asked but she ignored him and took his arms to wrap the band aid gauze around. "We don't have many options in here."

"You're right, we are trapped. I've used up most of my smoke bombs but I think if I use one right when they break the door open we might be able to shoot most of them down and escape." They reloaded their tranquilizer guns as the door's pounding increased. "Hinata, I'm starting to regret bring you here."

"Do you regret meeting me then?" The room went quiet and when Natsumi was about to say something they realized that the pounding stopped.

Hinata knocked down a table for their cover and Natsumi said, "You're the second friend I ever had."

His surprise expression changed into a sheepish smile, "Yeah you're also my second friend too, since I met Nanami first."

Nastumi blinked and declared, "Now that I think about it, you're probably my third friend, yep definitely number three. Fuyuhiko and his hitman were there from the beginning for me but now it's you who's here if this is the end."

"You almost make it sound like a bad thing that I'm here with you," he said quieter when they heard a ticking noise go off beyond the barricade.

"Hajime, I am trying to have an emotional conversation with you." She stared at the door, her gun and aim ready. At her side she saw Hinata had his jaw drop. "Get ready."

He snapped his attention back to the door, "Alright Natsumi."

The bomb ignited, blasting the rushed barricade sailing over their heads. Hajime threw a sleep bomb at the entrance as the gangsters ran in. Natsumi were able to shoot the necks of five gangsters that got knocked out while Hajime mostly aimed at their torso but it wasn't that effective. The gangsters had time to prepare to get body armor and their hazard masks. They were pinned down and now there's a bullet wound in her right arm. Even though pain was surging through her body she had to focus on the task at hand, shooting down as many as Nero's men as she could. Hajime didn't seem to be in a better state, he screamed when his left arm got shot.

Natsumi noticed that none of the shots were at aimed at their heads or torsos. They're not killing on sight, she realized, they're going to bring them to someone. Chances are they'll take their weapons away when they caught them. A moment later Natsumi and Hajime were outnumbered and backed to the wall. One gangster ran at her, punching the air out of her gut while another rushed Hajime and twisted his arm and kneed his chest. The bullets stopped firing, the smoke cleared and the alarm system was cut off. Only Apollo's stupid song was playing as the two teenagers were struggling to get out of their captors' grip, dragging them to the basement level.

They reached a door with a golden frame and knob and Natsumi and Hajime were lugged inside by two thugs. It was an observation deck redesigned to be an office. The entire left wall was replaced by glass to have an overview of a giant laboratory, the pods of the Kamukura Project in orderly stations with scientist attending to each test subject. Watching it all stood a man in the office, wearing a pristine black suit and had a gun holstered to his hip.

"This is truly a sight, Miss Natsumi. I wish I could take credit for the idea but having a front row seat is good too," says the man with that familiar accent.

Natsumi felt tried. She has bullet wounds, got punched in the gut, and kind of had an emotional moment with Hajime. It has been a long day. So she spat out, "Fuck you Apollo."

* * *

 _This fic is coming to a close with the next chapter being the last and possibly an epilogue too._

 _Thanks for reading!_


	7. Admiration

Attending Hope's Peak Academy did not go as Hajime Hinata has ever thought it would be like. Most of its craziness is the fault of one particular Kuzuryuu. During class Natsumi can be quite a delinquent and Hajime just happens to care enough about her to have study sessions with her. Outside of class she's still a stubborn, emotional mess of a human being.

But hey, so was he. It was blatantly obvious how lonely he was before Nanami and Natsumi walked into his life, quite literally for the former and quite rudely for the latter. Now his days were less lonely with Nanami introducing him to her classmates and always telling him how she's having fun with him. The Ultimate Gamer is really the greatest friend Hajime could ask for but she doesn't relate to the mental frustrations that he struggles with.

Nastumi on the other hand completely understands him. They both admired Hope's Peak and its Ultimates and also need some emotional support. They just understand and get each other and now that they've become friends they've actually have been helping each other. Hinata's approach being talking with her and encouraging her to be more open with her feelings and Natsumi's approach being directly telling him that he's not a worthless.

Subtly was never really Natsumi's choice in conversations. Like right now when the wraps on her arms are soggy with blood, her face as fierce and anger as ever. "Fuck you Apollo."

Yes, Hajime befriended a yakuza and decided to be her partner for his mission despite the fact he has completely average skills in weapons and stealth. He couldn't just leave her alone knowing she'll risk her life to fight Nero. He's with Natsumi to the end, even when she's insulting the man in charge of a gang and the academy's human experimentations.

Apollo, the man who threatened him from the very beginning, laughed. Natsumi mentioned to him that he had a European accent and just as she predicted, Apollo was some European who wanted more money. He was a blond bloke with a scar on his face that slashed from his right cheekbone through the right corner of his lips.

"You're as charming as ever but that's what to expect from the Kuzuryuu Clan." He walked right up to them, grinning, "Make them kneel." His goons pushed Hajime to the ground, kicking his shins and did the same to Natsumi so they're on their knees. "Now let's see what toys you've brought to us."

Their utility belts were snapped off and their bullet proof vests were tossed to side. The man made a big show of inspecting their smoke bombs and the tranquilizer darts, acting impressed and intrigued. Overall Hajime would love to see Natsumi punch that smug look off his face.

"Very nice," he praised, "I'm assuming you have an Ultimate on your side. That's quite nice. You better use the best of them while you still can. Soon their skills will pale in comparison to the Kamukura's."

Gesturing to the window, Hajime felt sick looking down at the pods. He could have easily made the choice to join the project those months ago and become the Ultimate Hope. At that time he was desperate to fill the emptiness inside him as well as take the student fees off his family.

"For fuck's sake, that's stupid," Natsumi's crud words clashed with Apollo's upper class smugness. "I've seen the flies. You're rushing production so you must be behind schedule."

"Yeah, your scientists may be smart but you don't have the Ultimate Neurologist helping you," Hajime added, "The phase one files say that it'll take two months while phase two has the subjects in their pods for at least four more months. You've put them in the pods a month early."

The gangster holding them down added more pressure in their grip and strained Hajime's bleeding arm against his back. Natsumi was enduring the pain better as she continues to mock Apollo.

"Let me guess, Nero demands to have the Kamukura Project finished before the school year ends or whatever," she rolled her eyes like this was a causal conversation and then grinned, "I bet that Nero's really mad since the explosion."

The man's elegant and arrogant façade broke when he grabbed Natsumi's hair, yanking her head up. "Shut your mouth, lil' girl! After I'm done with you I'm going after that lucky bastard!"

"Getting aggressive, aren't you?" Natsumi continued, "You must be so embarrassed that someone just up and napped your bombs right under your nose."

It must have been just seconds but Hajime instantly knew what Apollo was going to do when he let go of Natsumi's head. Right when the man raised his hand, just like Sato those months ago, Hajime yelled, "Don't touch her!"

His hand was so close to slapping Natsumi but he refrained and fixed himself, straightening up and adjusting his suit. "So you do have a backbone." Apollo walked back to his desk where their weapons were placed. "Hajime Hinata, you're not special at all. Do you really think you're the first civilian to get caught up in this type of world? I'm only surprised that you're alive this long," he picked up a pocket knife, Natsumi's signature weapon, "But of course you have your Miss Natsumi protecting you."

The red flags of Apollo attacking rose up again. He threw the knife and it stabbed the juncture where Hajime's neck met his right shoulder.

He screamed, barely hearing Natsumi's yell, "Hajime!" The gangsters restrained them once more, himself from his cries of pain and Natsumi for her struggles to attack Apollo. "You sick bastard, only scum like you would do this."

"Don't act like you're the innocent one here, Kuzuryuu," Apollo walked back to them, quickly pulling out the knife and pointed it to Natsumi, blood splatting her face. "The Kuzuryuu Clan has also done unspeakable actions like murder and drug trafficking but what I cannot believe is that your brother wants to cut ties to anything like this!" Again he pointed to the observation windows, "I suppose it's understandable, children like you can't stomach the knowledge of treating humans like objects but just look at the bigger picture here.

"In the long run, we're all going to die. What are we as humans going to do until the reaper comes? Anything we fucking want to do. The real elites of the world are those who have power and knowledge to achieve everything without consequences. Morals and law make people limit themselves from their truest potentials, making us fear going beyond the rules of science and of life. This world makes us fear any man or anything that does something considered unhuman."

Apollo grabbed Hajime by the chin, "Oh but what fools they are. It took time for cavemen to understand the concept of survival and it will take time again to make the modern day world to understand that doing the unimaginable may one day save the world," Apollo laughed, "or destroy the world. Like I said, we're all going to die but before that I am doing whatever I want instead of playing out a miserable, average life just like him. People like him are worthless." Hajime tried to even out his breathing as the stab wound burned and Apollo traced the knife's point lightly across his face, "Did you bring him here as a human shield or a scapegoat perhaps?"

"What are you, a philosophy major?" Natumi muttered.

Hajime heard Natsumi scream his name again when Apollo did a quick slash at his right cheek. Apollo pressed his thumb at the new wound, making the blood leak on his hand. It stung and looking at Apollo's malice smile made Hajime's situation worse. He dart his eyes to Natsumi who was still struggling, his blood still splattered on her face.

"No, you got that wrong," Hajime glared at Apollo, "Everything about life and its limits does not make life horrible. It just makes you a whiny little bitch." This time it was Natsumi's turn to yell as Apollo slapped Hajime's bleeding cheek. "That only proves my point."

"That is it," Apollo decided and pulled the pistol out of its holster and aimed it at Hajime. "I thought a slow torture would be fun but no, I will not let anyone make a mockery of me. I'll give you this Kuzuryuu, should he die by my gun," he rattled his pistol for effect then twirled the pocket knife in his other hand, "or your knife?"

"Apollo, this is between me and you," for once Natsumi stopped struggling but Hajime knows she's scared, "Leave him alone and I'll give you a quick death."

"Natsumi," Hajime took a breath and gave his friend a smile, "You can get out of this, I'm sure of it. I want you to know that I mean everything I ever said to you."

"Don't you fucking dare talk like that you piece of shit!"

"And this is the response I get for trying to have an emotional conversation with you."

"What did you fucking expect? Me saying how much I care about you?"

"I don't know, maybe!"

They didn't notice the gangsters holding them down were tilting their heads to each other, like they were either confused or amused, nor did the teenagers hear Apollo grumble, "So this is how kids are like nowadays." Suddenly the alarm system went off again, stopping the teenagers' bickering. Apollo pocketed Natsumi's knife and answered the beeping coms in his left ear, "What is it now?" Then he ended the call and shot Natsumi's right thigh, "You just love to stall, don't you. Your backup's arrived."

Natsumi tried to muffle her cries of pain by biting her lip while her head jerked wildly. Her eyes though were conveying her fear and confusion leading Hajime to guess one thing: her brother might be the one running into a gang corrupted science building to save them.

The two of them were bleeding, held down, at gunpoint from the right hand man of Nero, with dwindling options of getting out alive. Hopefully their rescuer makes it to them in time but both of them felt despair.

Then Hajime noticed something flashing behind Apollo. Their weapons were left on the fancy oak desk while their bulletproof vests were tossed aside at the foot of the desk. The collar of one of the vests had a faint red light flashing, its pattern increasing its pace.

"Natsumi," Hajime now has Apollo's attention and his gun pointing right at him as he said, "Jorge's prank."

Realization and alertness was immediately on her face as she yelled, "Get down!"

Another thing to add to the list of dangerous scenarios that Natsumi Kuzuryuu has gotten Hajime in was exploding vests. All that Hajime registered was a loud, fiery hot, explosion in the room and his ears ringing. He and Natsumi fortunately were able to hit the ground in time but gangsters holding them down got blasted to the wall and assumingly got knocked out. The observation window shattered and the alarm system changed into an emergency evacuation alarm. He could barely hear the scientists in the main lab yelling at each other.

Apollo's office may have been blown up with all the wooden furniture on fire but the blast radius was pretty small, nothing compared to Komaeda's event. The explosion was just enough to knock Apollo down, the back of his tailored suit charred and ashy.

"This is considered a prank?" He coughed out, slowly getting up. They both were in bad conditions with his knife wound and her bullet wound still bleeding.

It might have been his ringing ears or blood lost that made Hajime failed to react quickly when Apollo pushed himself up from the floor and lunged at him. Apollo tackled him to the ground then right hooked his face and pulled out Natsumi's knife. Hajime felt his left cheek swell and sting as he saw Apollo holding the knife over his head and ready to stab him.

Then a bullet went off. Natusmi shot Apollo in the back. Hajime saw the look of surprise over Apollo's face and so he took that moment to push the man off him. Natsumi limped over to Apollo and shot another bullet in his heart then tossed the gun to the growing fire.

"Are you alright, Hajime?"

"I'm good but we're both losing a lot of blood," he pocketed Natsumi's fallen knife then tossed an arm around her, letting her support her weight onto him, "I don't think we have enough energy to get out."

The door was then kicked open. Instead of a Kuzuryuu Clan member or more of Nero's gang there was a teacher smiling at them. The Ultimate Housekeeper, Miss Chisa Yukizome.

"Did someone order room service?" Natsumi joked but she was clearly baffled at the housekeeper's entrance.

Miss Chisa took Natsumi's other side and helped Hajime walk Natsumi out of the damaged office, "Kuzuryuu, you're a clever girl but you're not that clever at hiding information from me. Now come on, I called Sakakura and the rest of campus security, they'll be arriving soon but I want you two out of this mess." The students were still staring at her, still surprised and confused and even more so when they passed by unconscious gangsters on the way out.

Natsumi admitted, "Miss Chisa, I have so much respect for you."

"Thank you dear. I may not officially be your teacher but I couldn't just let you guys do something dangerous." When they finally got out of the building they saw a black van driving up to the curb and a blond boy with got out and ran towards them. "I also called your brother too."

Kuzuryuu took Miss Chisa's place in supporting Natsumi and he scolded, "I cannot believe you two!" Hajime assumed that he continued his ranting but his head was feeling very light from the blood lost to the point where Miss Chisa had to go on his vacant side to help him walk to the van. Jorge was there too, opening the van door and inside was Kimura, ready with whatever medical treatment that they needed.

Nastumi and Hajime were placed on the cots inside the van with Kimura treating his knife wound and Kuzuryuu tending to his sister. If Miss Chisa said any goodbyes he didn't hear them when she closed the van door and the engine revved up and started leaving the science building.

His head continued to ache and the pounding of his heart was all he could hear, the muffled words of Kimura and Kuzuryuu barely registering to him. Hajime turned his head to face Natsumi and he had to guess that her head was in similar condition. He gave her a weak smile and she just stuck her tongue at him and then a faint smile in return.

So, Hajime thought to himself, they made it out alive. He hurts all over but he and Natusmi are alive. He kept repeating that thought until his mind drifted off and everything went black.

When he regained conscious Hajime assumed it must be the very next day since his body still aches and there's sunlight hitting his eyes. His throat felt rough and dry when he groaned his pain, both from his injuries and from the sunlight.

"Hey, can you hear me?" Someone leaned over him, fortunately blocking the sunlight, "You seem really out of it but to be honest, I can't blame you since Natsumi got you into this."

Hajime rubbed his eyes, avoided the swelling from his left cheek and the cut on his right. "Kuzuryuu, what's going on?"

"Here," the Ultimate Yakuza and Natsumi's older brother placed an ice bag on his bruised cheek, "You're at our house. Dad wants a full report but most importantly he wants to see Natsumi patched up and to some extent that means you too." They were in a guest room of the yakuza manor, Hajime guessed from glancing around the spacious room.

"Is Natsumi awake?" Hajime pressed the ice bag more against his warm cheek when he saw Kuzuryuu' eyes widen up when he said his sister's first name.

Kuzuryuu sat up straighter in his chair, folding his arms and given the fact that he's looming over Hajime, his intimidation factor is really high. "Yeah she's awake, healing, and annoyed that you're taking such a long time to wake up."

Hajime let out a small laugh, "That does sound like her."

"So Hinata, you've known my sister for a couple months, help her with her homework, become her accomplice, and accompanied her to a dangerous mission even though the closest to a live firearms training you've ever had is your summer job at the paintball gunfight arena." He stared coldly at Hajime, practically turning the guest room into an interrogation room.

Pushing up into a sitting position, Hajime stared directly at Kuzuryuu and stated, "Natsumi's my friend. I care about her and yes I've only known her for a few months but we just understand each other especially when it comes to how we value ourselves and other people. She's been a great friend so I just want to be by her side whenever she's needs help."

Kuzuryuu was silent for a moment, analyzing everything that Hajime said. "You care about Natsumi, do you like her?"

"She's my friend and I care about her," Hajime shrugged.

He narrowed his eyes, making it hard for Hajime to keep a calm face and not freak out. "So you guess?"

"Sure," Hajime said barely managed to keep his voice from squeaking into a questioning tone.

Kuzuryuu let out an exaggerated sigh and mumbled, "I cannot believe you two." He abruptly stood up and said, "Alright Hinata, I know you're not a threat. Kimura will be here to check up on you so you better stay in bed," right before he walked out of the room Kuzuryuu surprised Hajime with a smile, strikingly similar to Natsumi's, "Thanks for being there for Natsumi."

Hajime had a feeling that Kuzuryuu was going easy on him, whether that was reassuring or not, he didn't want to know. He lay back down on the comfy and probably expensive bed, closed his eyes and tried to doze off. The key word being try.

So many things happened in the span of a few hours that Hajime almost didn't believe that he actually did all those things. The pain from the stab wound being a constant reminder along with the memory of Natsumi getting hurt. Then the image of her bleeding and holding the gun flashed in his mind.

There's also the fact that Natsumi killed a man to save him. Hajime knew that she's the daughter of a yakuza and yes that fact did scare him but he trusts her. He may have befriended the side of her that's slowly opening up her vulnerabilities to feel better but he can never relate to the yakuza part of her life. The best that he can do is just be there for her and keep her safe or at least ease her mind.

He was finally able to doze off and rest when something kept tapping his forehead. This time it was the other Kuzuryuu sibling that was leaning over him.

"It's about time you woke up," Natsumi drummed her fingers over his forehead one last time and leaned back into her chair. "And before you ask, I'm okay."

Hajime shuffled his body up to sit against the headboard of the bed, "You limped your way here."

Her thigh was bandaged and Natsumi didn't deny him, "I was almost here when Kimura found me and gave me medicine. Now take yours." She promptly shoved a pill bottle into his hands. Her face a bit red as Hajime let out a small chuckle, imaging Kimura finding Natsumi limping down the hall. Kimura's medicine worked instantly, his headache was gone, it felt like his cheek stopped swelling, and the stab wound felt like it was never there although his shirt did leak a few specks of blood. "Hajime, are you okay? Like with everything I put you through?"

This was the Natsumi he knew, the one who was concern and learning how to work through with her emotions. He gave her a reassuring smile, "I'm not a fan of murder but considering the situation I can understand why you did it. Natsumi, I may not ever understand all this yakuza business but that doesn't mean I hate you because of it."

The tension in her shoulders was subtle but now she relaxed and still at lost with words. "Hajime, thanks for being at my side."

"That's was friends do."

"Don't be nonchalant Hajime, I'm trying to have an emotional conversation with you," she smiled jokingly.

"I know and I am so proud of you right now."

He barely managed to keep his smile from wincing when she punched his arm. "I cannot tell if you're just teasing or being serious."

"Oh right," Hajime remembered and reached into his pocket, bringing up Natsumi's knife and handed it to the owner, "I forgot I had this."

Natsumi glared at the blood that had dried up on the blade and pocketed, "Thanks, maybe I'll get you your own knife."

"Um, I don't think that'll be necessary." Hajime has a feeling that she'll get him a knife anyway, at least to know that he has some form of protection. "But I'll accept it nonetheless."

"You better," was her empty threat.

Minutes later Kuzuryuu barged in with a tray of food and a frown, "I should have known you crawled your way here, Natus. I am not your fucking room service. Both of you, eat, especially the vegetables!"

Kuzuryuu was a very demanding and loud older brother but Hajime could see that he cares. It was fun to see the siblings banter as Natsumi threw small bits of food in the air trying to catch them in her mouth while her brother scolded. Sure their bond seems to be comprised of teasing and yelling but Hajime can see that they truly care about each other. Once all the food has been eaten, Kuzuryuu got to hear their summary of the events of last night.

"Exploding vests?" At Hajime's nod Kuzuryuu cursed, "God damn, Jorge told me he gave you the flash bang ones."

Natsumi shook her head disapprovingly, "I cannot believe that man is married and is a father."

"That's it, I'm telling his husband about this," Kuzuryuu declared.

Hajime looked between the siblings' annoyed faces, "Aright can you explain how things like exploding vests are a thing?"

"Jorge dapples in weapon proto-types and his latest success is in vests where they activate its function from a lack of heat signature for a certain time interval." Kuzuryuu explained, "And the word success is just being generous."

Natsumi patted Hajime's back, quickly seeing the beginning of his distress, "Relax Hajime, you're alive. Freaking you out is probably a part of his prank, probably."

"You are not very reassuring."

"Is that supposed to be new information?" Her joking smile faded as she asked, "Okay so now that you know everything, Fuyu, what's the damage report?"

"As you recall, it was Miss Chisa that saved your asses last night. The reason why she of all people was there is because from the very start she and her friends has been investigating Hope's Peak Academy."

"Hmm, she does have the perfect background and alibi to go into deep cover," Natsumi thought aloud.

"Don't interrupt," Kuzuryuu said. "Anyway she had the campus security raid the science labs and saw all the illegal experiments taking place but at that time all the data and files has already been deleted or transferred away."

"Except we have copies of the Kamukura Project," Hajime added.

"What did I fucking say? Don't interrupt! So this morning I made a deal with Miss Chisa and gave her copies of the files we have in exchange that the whoever she's with doesn't interfere with the Clan but will give us any more leads on Nero's gang. During the time you two snoozed, Miss Chisa did what she thought was best, she exposed the Steering Committee of their experimentation and financial frauds." Kuzuryuu took a deep breath, "The damage report is that hundreds of adults are unemployed and thousands of students are no longer in an educational system because Hope's Peak Academy is officially shut down in about," he checked his watch, "six hours give or take."

There was silence between the three of them and then Natsumi decided to be loud.

"Fuyuhiko, why didn't you announce that first?" She yelled.

"Well excuse me for going in chronological order!"

The siblings continued yelling at each other while Hajime dazed out. Hope's Peak Academy was the most prestigious school in the world and from the moment Hajime learned about it he wanted to attend the school. It was pure admiration that motivated Hajime to get into Hope's Peak but after all his efforts he never had enough time or practice to be scouted as an Ultimate. Attending the Reserve Course seemed like the next best thing even with the payment fees. Now everything he did in his life for getting into Hope's Peak is wasted because the academy is getting closed for good.

The end of Hope's Peak Academy happened because of its own corruption, Hajime reminded himself. He looked at Natsumi, the girl that changed his life from being a part of the corruption or from losing himself in his self-pity and hatred.

"The Academy might be done but that doesn't mean Nero is done," Hajime pointed out, getting the siblings to stop their bickering.

Kuzuryuu nodded, "You're right, I doubt that Apollo's death would throw off Nero. His plan for human experimentation has gone to shit with Miss Chisa getting the scientists arrested and the test subjects in proper medical condition."

"That's good to hear," said Natsumi, "How the media taking all of this?"

"They're having the time of their lives broadcasting the news. Anyway I better tell Dad about your report. Last night could have been worse but it seems like you two made a good team," Kuzuryuu complimented and left.

His description about the media's excitement was as accurate as Hajime would have thought, there was no way the school can cover this up. There have been global news reports of the Steering Committee's scandal for weeks as he and Natsumi recovered their injuries and returned to campus. New reporters and journalists were constantly trying to get more information on the school and as for the students, they had similar views.

There was a school wide announcement to the students that the academy will be closed for good and that everyone on campus must clear out their personal items by the end of the week. Hajime and Natsumi saw firsthand how outraged the Reserve students were at the news of their classmates being test subjects and that their fees were the ones used to finance the project. The Reserve Course wanted answers and their money back but they were mostly happy that at least the Steering Committee was punished with life sentences.

As for the Main Course, they were shocked with the revelation, or so he heard from Nanami. When he asked she texted him about the rumors of some Ultimates anonymously giving the news stations more in depth information about the illegal decisions the Committee has made. Most of her concerns were about her classmates and how she's been telling them that the one thing that the academy did right was having them meet each other.

Reading Nanami's hopeful and positive text messages made Hajime feel better about stopping the Steering Committee. He recalled to all the moments of Nanami telling him that he didn't need a talent, that spending time with him and the rest of their friends is what makes life worth living. Smiling, he sent her a message thanking her for being his friend and that he finished up packing and leaving the campus soon.

When he locked his room for the last time, his phone beeped with two new messages, one from Nanami and another from Natsumi. The gamer's message was something that Hajime decided to talk with Natsumi later and the yakuza's message was telling him that Jorge going to pick up Hajime's stuff and to meet up with her at the water fountain. When Hajime walked out of the dormitory, Jorge collected all of Hajime's bags and boxes and tossed them into his car. He patted Hajime's back, apologized about the exploding vests, and said Natsumi's waiting for him.

On his way to the fountain, Hajime passed by other students that have also finished packing. All week it has been crowded and hectic with all the students freaking out about the Kamukura Project and packing up all their belongings to get the hell out of the crazy school. Now nearing the official day the Academy will be closed the campus has gradually becoming deserted.

It was kind of a weird sight. A famous academy that was once filled with loud, hopeful students was now empty. It got a little bit more ridiculous when Hajime found Nastumi walking in circles in the drained water fountain.

"Hey Haji," she greeted, still walking in around the dry water spout, "Your new phone's working right?"

"Yep and I haven't dropped it at all unlike you," he said. As a thank you for helping out Natsumi, Kuzuryuu got them both new phones since their old ones got damaged in the explosion in Apollo's office.

"Fuyu practically threw mine at me when I wasn't looking," she defended and stepped out of the fountain. He laughed at her exaggerated facial expression as they both sat at a bench.

"Are you still going after Nero?"

"I'm a part of the Kuzuryuu Clan, Hajime; of course I want to go after him." Natsumi gave Hajime a curious glance, "What about you? All you wanted to do is make sure I'm safe, that was your only reason to ever get involved with all of this."

"That is true, Natsumi. I didn't want to lose any of my friends. But knowing you, you'd still go into dangerous situations."

"You're not stopping me, Hajime," she reminded. "Wait, you're not thinking about joining the Clan just to keep me safe, are you?"

She had a panicked look that Hajime immediately reassured. "No, I don't think the yakuza life is for me, nor do I think my parents would approve." His smile faltered with a new train of thought, "My parents, the student fees, are we getting our money back?"

Nastumi poked his cheek, "Don't worry about that. Dad's way of thanking you for your assistance is giving you money and a lot of it, ya know," she shrugged, "as long as your parents don't ask too many questions. Besides, I think Miss Chisa is working that money problem and we both know she'll clean up this mess by at least the end of the month."

"I don't know if I should be happy about getting my parent's money back or be disappointed at your pun."

"Hajime, just be both." They both slouched into the bench, after such a busy week they finally had time to relax. "So Apollo's dead, Sato and the rest of the test subjects are in the hospital and doing well, the people involved in the experimentation are arrested, the school's closing, and now you don't have any financial problems anymore."

He nudged his elbow at her side, "You know, it almost sounds like you closed the school down for me."

"What, can't a girl close down a school just because?" Natsumi punched his arm, "Besides we had a quiz the next day."

"Yes, you are a savior for all students." Hajime then noticed that how frequently she's been making jokes and her smile looked a bit strained. "Natsumi, are you sure you're okay? You also admired Hope's Peak and you really did want to be an Ultimate even with a silly title."

The yakuza let her head dip back over the bench, staring at the sky and organizing her thoughts, "I made such a big deal about being an Ultimate and going to this school. At first I thought that being by Fuyuhiko's side would be all that I needed but now that I think about it, I would still think lowly of myself. If I just got what I wanted then I would still be in denial of my problems and treat everyone horribly."

"But now you're different," he reminded, "You talked through your problems and you apologized to Koizumi. Nastumi you really have changed."

"Yeah and I guess that I have you to thank. You know, you look much happier compared to the day I arrived here." She smirked, "I bet that I'm a good influence on you."

He simply rolled his eyes but didn't feel the need to deny her claim. "By the way, Nanami sent me news about Sonia inviting everyone to her kingdom for an early summer vacation. She's wondering if we want to go with them."

"Wait, Fuyuhiko didn't tell me anything about that," her phone then beeped with an invitation message, "Never mind, we're both invited." Natsumi stretched her arms over her head, "I need a break after being a heroine and I doubt that Nero's ever heard of Sonia's kingdom so we should be in the clear."

"You two are going to bring weapons," he stated. "I am not going to be surprised."

Natsumi got up, tugging at Hajime's arm, "Come on let's leave this place already. We're done here. We don't need this place at all."

She's right, Hajime thought, letting her hook arms with him as they walked back to Jorge's car. He did have admiration for the original and true values of Hope's Peak Academy, the ones about the hopes of the world, but with befriending Natsumi he realized something far more important. His life should not be spent in the despair of toxic thoughts or stuck with a hope of getting everything he ever wanted. The future, his future, all his friends' future, it's something that they must all achieve together and be there for each other when in need. And whatever his future hold, Hajime knows that Natsumi will be right there with him.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments! It's been fun writing all of this and I hope you all enjoyed it too._


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